ABOUT ME
I'm First-Generation.
As a first-generation college student and investor, I invest in real estate because it is an investment vehicle that indirectly provides the most scarce asset in the entire world, time.
My parents, immigrants from Cuba, fled the grasp of communism, one in 1967 and the other in 1984, to establish a better life in the United States with only the clothes they had on when they arrived.
My father had left behind his wife at the time and three children in an effort to preemptively find work in Florida and ensure their well-being when they arrived. My mother had barely finished high school in Cuba when she was torn away from the community she grew up in by her mother and grandmother to go live in an entirely different country.
Tasked with the burden of working endlessly right after they had arrived in Miami to make ends meet, neither of my parents knew what investing was or how investing would help them achieve what they wanted which was a better life for the entire family. It was only years later, in 2010, when my self-employed father began dabbling in real estate and purchased a rental property, that I learned how one could put money to work for you.
Today, I own rental units across Florida, Michigan, and Arizona, which has helped me reach the $1M in assets mark.
These have been the places where I have lived for work which has allowed me to purchase most of my rentals by way of owner-occupied, primary residence bank loans.
My main investing strategy revolves around "buy and hold.” I own several small multi-family homes which I occupied for a minimum of one year and then rented out once I was eligible to purchase a new home.
The best part is, while I occupied one of the units, I was still able to rent out the other units which helped cover the monthly mortgage payment and allowed me to save much faster.
A good example of this is a duplex I purchased in Michigan for $349,000 in 2020. Since it was an FHA, owner-occupied loan, I was able to do a 3.5% downpayment option. Combined with 3.5% seller-paid concessions, I was able to close the deal with $12,815 at the closing table and a monthly principal-interest-taxes-insurance (PITI) payment of $2,016.
One month after closing, I found a tenant that rented out the other unit next-door to where I would be living for $2,300/month. I was living for “free" in my own home!
Seeing the potential of investing in real estate the last few years, I have managed to achieve a level of financial independence which allows me to afford a lifestyle where I decide what I want to do with my time.
In 2022, I decided to take a sabbatical to travel full-time with my partner and experience the nomad lifestyle to see if it was the right fit for us. Meanwhile my real estate portfolio was able to sustain our cost of living, we traveled across Mexico, SE Asia, and Europe, meeting locals, investors, and other individuals who also achieved financial independence — only cementing the idea that this lifestyle is attainable and brings with it so many new opportunities and a different perspective on life that is priceless.
Today, I have visited a total of 30 countries and nearly all 50 U.S. states. I look forward to continue traveling, growing my network and net worth along the way.
Achieving this feat has come with its share of adversity and roadblocks along the way. Family health complications, job changes, maintenance repairs, managing contractors and tenants from afar can prove to be difficult, although that did not deter me from focusing on my goals.
Each obstacle became a learning experience and another tool in my toolbox that I will be able to apply in future scenarios to avoid the same mistakes. For instance, being an out-of-state investor requires you to manage a team of individuals who are local to your properties and can address any issues that may come up. I learned the hard way that having a good team is key to running a successful and profitable portfolio with little to no stress and if I had to do things over again, I would place a lot more emphasis and time on building a strong, trustworthy team that will know how to operate the business even if you’re not present.
Despite my setbacks up until this day, I look to apply my learnings going forward and continue my real estate investing journey. I am actively exploring creative financing, syndications, and the short-term rental market — exploring new ways of investing and diversifying my portfolio to remain robust and ready for new opportunities.
I never shy away from challenges and use my newly-found time to make the most of the life my parents sacrificed everything for me to have.
Countries Visited
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