Welcome to Our Journey!
Hello, we are Nick and Chelsie and we are the owners of Rentals, Rehabs, & More. We are excited to be launching our website, and hope to bring you through our journey. We are real estate investors, DIY’ers, and currently also working professionals; Chelsie is a Director of Strategy and Nick is an Engineering Manager.
We started investing in Real Estate in 2018 and have kept up a consistent pace ever since then. We currently own nine rental units in Connecticut and Rhode Island and a property we use as a second home and are starting to rent short term in Vermont. We are here to share our story and educate anyone who wants to learn about design choices, rehab ins and outs, and the finances of real estate investing.
Why?
So why do we do what we do? Why do two young(ish) professionals with successful corporate careers want to spend their nights and weekends painting walls and installing flooring? The answer is that these are not necessarily the things we want to do with our spare time. These are the things that we do in order to hopefully secure our futures.
We began investing in real estate in order to gain new skills and to hopefully provide a secure financial future for ourselves without needing to rely on a corporate salary or the stock market. We have also found that fixing up properties is a task that we really enjoy, despite the hard work that it entails. This is something we would prefer to do full-time instead of needing to work as much as we can in our limited spare hours. So far the long weeks have been paying off. While we are not at the point of financial independence, we have been able to increase our net worth and establish steady income outside of the standard W2 salary. This should allow us to continue to grow and no longer be reliant on corporate salaries in the future.
What and How?
What is the #1 thing we look for in an investment? There is a point-blank, one-word answer to this question. Cash Flow. We subscribe to the idea that cash flow is king, we do not primarily invest for appreciation. With positive cashflow you can hold a property indefinitely. There is no need to time the market if you are not losing money. You can hold a property until the time is right to sell. This allows the investor to take advantage of both steady income and appreciation benefits. You can see our post on How to Analyze a Property to see how to determine the cash flow for a property.
What do we invest in? Typically we invest in multi-family buildings which means two or more apartments in a building. There are a few reasons for this. One, is our location. In New England property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs are higher than some areas of the country. This means that it takes more rent to offset the holding costs of a property and we have found it is nearly impossible to achieve that with a single family house in our area. Additionally, having multiple units in a building tends to mitigate risk and allow for some income even if a unit goes vacant.
We also believe that the best way to invest for the future and our end goals is to put money back into our properties. There are several reasons for this but there are two main ones:
First, at the end of the day tenants are paying rent in exchange for a service. They are paying for clean, livable shelter, and for the maintenance involved to be performed by someone else. We believe in providing a fair service for that rent which will in-turn reduce turnover and property disrepair.
The second reason is mentioned at the end of the first. Properly maintaining your properties will keep minor issues from becoming more expensive.
We hope to bring you along on our journey as we continue to invest and learn more skills. We will be sharing the lessons we have learned along the way, in everything from analyzing the numbers to what repairs/upgrades to perform. The goal is that by sharing and documenting all of this we can aid anyone who is starting out on their own journey and perhaps inspire anyone who is thinking about starting. We have made progress that we didn’t even think was possible when we first began, the key was starting. At times the work is hard and stressful, but it is amazingly rewarding in more ways than just financially. And there will be more progress to come!
Looking to see more of what we do? Follow us on Instagram at @RentalsRehabsandMore.