I decided to channel my inner Conor McGregor with the thread title, also the fact that I’m born and based out of Ireland made it all the more relevant. He’s a modern day living hero for many young people living here including myself. The ability to go from nothing to something so quickly and someone who shares a very similar background makes it all the better.
The only other person who has probably had as much influence on my journey so far is @Fox . Back in May 2017 when I met him in person it was the first time I had seen living and breathing proof of someone who aspired to the Fastlane dream and was living a life reflective of that. Meeting someone else who came from the same country, grew up in a similar type environment, went to college and then emigrated was pretty cool. He has trail-blazed and I’m happy to follow and learn the lessons passed down.
Previously I was writing Copy and studying Software Development in college. In my first year of college I stayed with family to save money, then last year I was paying $600 monthly to rent a room in an average house in the suburbs with friends and this year I can happily say that I am paying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING while living in a townhouse in the middle of the city center… one of the best locations in the entire city.
How did this happen I hear you ask?
A little concept called house hacking which I first heard about here on the forums through people like @G_Alexander / @JScott and later by stumbling across the BiggerPockets podcast & the book ‘Set for Life’ by Scott Trench.
It changed my thinking at the time and I knew that I couldn’t continue wasting money each month on rent. I was working hard and it was a continual drain on my finances so when the college year ended I didn’t renew my lease. To put a long story short I decided that I was going to create my own luck so I started attending property auctions, random business meetings at my dad’s company, telling everyone I know I wanted to get into Real Estate. Eventually I was put in touch with a local real estate guy through mutual connections and I met up with him at an auction. When it concluded he brought me to a new property just up the road that he had acquired where they had just evicted squatters from.. It wasn’t in good condition but it had potential. He explained how over the course of 6 weeks he was going to bring in his team to get the place up to scratch. Right there on the spot I offered to labor for him on the property in exchange for learning about the business.
For the next six weeks I woke up at 6am traveling with him and the team for over an hour into the city and worked until 6pm in the evening when we would leave to return home. During those car trips I learned about all the different units he was managing (a lot), how he acquires and interacts with tenants, manages employees, suppliers, time, legal issues, how he puts together proposals for investors, how he finds deals, the structure of his business to minimize tax and for various other benefits. The biggest thing was to be able to listen to his interactions with others on calls etc and the ability to ask a million questions and get good straight to the point responses. Heck even at the end of every week he’d make sure I was paid even though I had specifically said in the beginning I was doing it for knowledge.
Eventually as the house was nearing completion he offered it to me for nine months for my third year of college. I accepted immediately and filled the other two rooms in the house with college friends so that the rent would be covered.
What's been happening now?
For the past two weeks I have been in bed after a two hour surgery (While I was awake) on my jaw and I have to go back sometime next year to do the same surgery on the other side on my mouth. It is something that has to be done as I have been fighting low level infections in my mouth for nearly two years causing me to sleep over 12 hours some days, getting sick once a month and being bed bound at times. This has been disrupting both college and my entrepreneurial path as I fight my own body at times just to live normally. Hopefully this will resolve the issue.
In the meantime Real Estate mentor has contacted me saying that he wants me to manage four of his properties that go empty during the summer when students move out. I can AirBnB them and rent them out to tourists as the city is a hotbed of activity during the summer. He doesn’t want the hassle of managing them on a short term basis as he has some MAJOR projects in the works that require all of his attention so this is a small issue he needs resolved. If I execute on this correctly I should be able to bring in anywhere from 20-40k over the course of the 3 months. It will be hard work and it’ll be almost like a full time job but damn for a 20 year old like myself it’s one of the best opportunities available. It’ll allow me to build my own capital extremely fast and along with the 200k private funding I have negotiated if a good deal comes along I’ll be ready to pounce and start building my own empire.
Why not start now I hear you ask?
The market is small here in Ireland and while rents are extremely high also I think it’s better for me to wait until the right opportunity presents itself not to just jump into a purchase stupidly for the sake of it. Also, I don’t qualify for traditional loans as a college student so If I can hold on till graduation then I can use the capital available to me when I have a full-time job and borrow multiples of it instead. I also have been learning more about transitioning eventually from personal borrowings and RE investments into business/commercial loans as they are easier to acquire for what I want to achieve in this country anyways.
If anyone has any experience or anything to add I’d love to hear it as I’m always open to new angles.
The only other person who has probably had as much influence on my journey so far is @Fox . Back in May 2017 when I met him in person it was the first time I had seen living and breathing proof of someone who aspired to the Fastlane dream and was living a life reflective of that. Meeting someone else who came from the same country, grew up in a similar type environment, went to college and then emigrated was pretty cool. He has trail-blazed and I’m happy to follow and learn the lessons passed down.
Previously I was writing Copy and studying Software Development in college. In my first year of college I stayed with family to save money, then last year I was paying $600 monthly to rent a room in an average house in the suburbs with friends and this year I can happily say that I am paying ABSOLUTELY NOTHING while living in a townhouse in the middle of the city center… one of the best locations in the entire city.
How did this happen I hear you ask?
A little concept called house hacking which I first heard about here on the forums through people like @G_Alexander / @JScott and later by stumbling across the BiggerPockets podcast & the book ‘Set for Life’ by Scott Trench.
It changed my thinking at the time and I knew that I couldn’t continue wasting money each month on rent. I was working hard and it was a continual drain on my finances so when the college year ended I didn’t renew my lease. To put a long story short I decided that I was going to create my own luck so I started attending property auctions, random business meetings at my dad’s company, telling everyone I know I wanted to get into Real Estate. Eventually I was put in touch with a local real estate guy through mutual connections and I met up with him at an auction. When it concluded he brought me to a new property just up the road that he had acquired where they had just evicted squatters from.. It wasn’t in good condition but it had potential. He explained how over the course of 6 weeks he was going to bring in his team to get the place up to scratch. Right there on the spot I offered to labor for him on the property in exchange for learning about the business.
For the next six weeks I woke up at 6am traveling with him and the team for over an hour into the city and worked until 6pm in the evening when we would leave to return home. During those car trips I learned about all the different units he was managing (a lot), how he acquires and interacts with tenants, manages employees, suppliers, time, legal issues, how he puts together proposals for investors, how he finds deals, the structure of his business to minimize tax and for various other benefits. The biggest thing was to be able to listen to his interactions with others on calls etc and the ability to ask a million questions and get good straight to the point responses. Heck even at the end of every week he’d make sure I was paid even though I had specifically said in the beginning I was doing it for knowledge.
Eventually as the house was nearing completion he offered it to me for nine months for my third year of college. I accepted immediately and filled the other two rooms in the house with college friends so that the rent would be covered.
What's been happening now?
For the past two weeks I have been in bed after a two hour surgery (While I was awake) on my jaw and I have to go back sometime next year to do the same surgery on the other side on my mouth. It is something that has to be done as I have been fighting low level infections in my mouth for nearly two years causing me to sleep over 12 hours some days, getting sick once a month and being bed bound at times. This has been disrupting both college and my entrepreneurial path as I fight my own body at times just to live normally. Hopefully this will resolve the issue.
In the meantime Real Estate mentor has contacted me saying that he wants me to manage four of his properties that go empty during the summer when students move out. I can AirBnB them and rent them out to tourists as the city is a hotbed of activity during the summer. He doesn’t want the hassle of managing them on a short term basis as he has some MAJOR projects in the works that require all of his attention so this is a small issue he needs resolved. If I execute on this correctly I should be able to bring in anywhere from 20-40k over the course of the 3 months. It will be hard work and it’ll be almost like a full time job but damn for a 20 year old like myself it’s one of the best opportunities available. It’ll allow me to build my own capital extremely fast and along with the 200k private funding I have negotiated if a good deal comes along I’ll be ready to pounce and start building my own empire.
Why not start now I hear you ask?
The market is small here in Ireland and while rents are extremely high also I think it’s better for me to wait until the right opportunity presents itself not to just jump into a purchase stupidly for the sake of it. Also, I don’t qualify for traditional loans as a college student so If I can hold on till graduation then I can use the capital available to me when I have a full-time job and borrow multiples of it instead. I also have been learning more about transitioning eventually from personal borrowings and RE investments into business/commercial loans as they are easier to acquire for what I want to achieve in this country anyways.
If anyone has any experience or anything to add I’d love to hear it as I’m always open to new angles.
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