What is “Starting Small, Thinking Big” about? It’s really about how I got started in real estate, and how my journey evolved over time. I hope that as I continue to learn and grow, that people get some insights about how they might get started, or take on a particular project.
As for me, I came out of college in May 2008 during “The Great Recession” and I had $20,000 in student debt. I heard about people losing their homes during the crisis, and as hard as I looked, I couldn’t find a job. To be frank, I was scared. I lived paycheck to paycheck in college, working odds and ends jobs to make ends meet and pay my bills. The loans I took out were my lifeline - they paid for my tuition and books, but not much else. And the 6 months post-graduation “grace” period was staring me down the barrell, with no job to be found. I had sent my resume and applied to over 100 positions that my newly-minted Graphic Design degree qualified me for. Yet no one was calling.
The feeling of being in debt with no income was terrible. For the next year and a half, I would freelance as well as work the full-time position that I eventually landed 7 months post-graduation to make as many advance payments on my debt as I could. My partner and I lived frugally - growing our own salad greens and vegetables, making food at home, entertaining ourselves with books from the library and learning. The idea of owning a home didn’t really occur to me at the time. All I saw was the risk and the issues that homeowners ran into with debt during the crisis, and I resolved that debt was bad, and who would ever want a mortgage after all that mess!
Over time, my dreams of owning a farm had me realize that farms were real estate, and I knew nothing about it.
On this blog, I’ll document what I’ve learned about real estate since I started learning about it in 2016, and the projects I’m currently involved in. I hope that the chronicles of this journey can help others along the way - whether your goal is DIY a fix on your own house, or find a way to add real estate as a strategy in your own investing journey.
Take small steps today, but keep on thinking big!