Violeta 0:00

One thing that our community needs is definitely more ethical investors that are here coming into our communities and turning these properties, fixing them up and keeping them affordable. Because one thing I do love to do now is take over properties from slum lords, making them safe, fixing them up, but making sure that I keep them affordable. Because one thing is that we can't change the system if we are not in the game. Amiga, you need to invest in real estate. The cost of living has gone up, and housing continues to get more expensive. What if instead of watching it happen, we became part of the solution? Hola, I am Violetta, and you know, here on the Money Cheese Mate podcast, I talk about like personal finance and we get into some general money cheese made, but I am also a real estate investor of over 10 years, and I know real estate investors we get this negative stigma of, you know, the whole reason of the housing affordability and house pricing, you know, soaring is because of real estate investors. And I definitely get that, I definitely hear it here and there. But what if I told you that we can flip the script? I didn't get into real estate investing just to make money, I actually got into it by accident. I didn't even know that I was investing in real estate, and many Latinas, many Latinos or the Latino community actually end up investing in real estate without even knowing it by renting out rooms of a house that they own. And that's exactly what I did with my first home. Of course, I wanted to buy my first house. Luckily, it was accessible to me through the VA home loan, but I was still broke, and so I didn't want to just be stretched out thin. And you know, I had a friend that was like needing a place to stay, and so I rented out a room to them, which helped reduce my own cost. And so when I saw that, I was like, oh, you know, of course it didn't occur to me right away. I was just like, you know what, cool, extra cash for me. But then I was like, you know what? As I matured and I started realizing what I can do with real estate, I was like, oh, you know what? I think I could keep this going. But again, it was just mostly focused for myself of, you know, I didn't want to continue that financial struggle. I wanted to build sources of income so that way I wouldn't have to struggle again. And now, over the years, now that I am out of that financial struggle, I'm financially free. Now that has involved to being more of an advocate and wanting to be the change and becoming an investor that invests in our own community to fight that home affordability crisis that we have. Because one thing that our community needs is definitely more ethical investors that are here coming into our communities and turning, you know, these properties, fixing them up and keeping them affordable. Because one thing I do love to do now is take over properties from slum lords, making them safe, fixing them up, but making sure that I keep them affordable. Because one thing is that we can't change the system if we are not in the game. I know there's lots of negative views on being part of the system that is, you know, hurting us, but unfortunately, we do have to if we want to drive some change, because becoming a real estate investor doesn't just have to be about wealth. It's about having a voice and being a voice for the communities that we invest in. And I know that that's a long spiel. I know it's a little bit out there because especially if you are like just worrying about paying your bills, you know, trying to survive, trying to make ends meet, or you're just working in your career, trying to, you know, climb the ladder, all that. So you're not worried about per se. I mean, yes, obviously you care. I'm not saying that you don't care, but you don't have the ability to worry about fighting the good fight, right? Against the system. But let me just cook for a minute, right? Let me cook for this episode as the cool kids say nowadays. I want to talk to you about how real estate investing is for you, it's not as out of reach as you might think, and you can make a pretty good impact, even if it's just for yourself. And that's where I want to start. How can becoming a real estate investor have a positive impact for yourself? And I kind of already touched upon it earlier of how I used my first house to house hack basically. That's what is known in the real estate investing world, you know, house hacking a property is buying a property that you live in and finding a way to bring in income. And for me, it was by renting out rooms. Now I was young and I was single, so I can see how some, you know, if you're like married and you have kids, you might be adverse to obviously renting out rooms. So it can be a little bit iffy, but you can find other ways. Maybe you have extra space in your driveway or you have a larger lot, maybe you have the ability to build an additional unit. I know some people that converted garages into kind of little mini apartments that they rent out, and so really, if you already have a house, trying to figure out how you can either bring in income or reduce your tax liability and reduce the taxes that you pay. And you know, this goes into like the side hustles and maybe starting a business. So, for example, even though I am now living in my house, my forever home, and I am not too keen right now. And obviously, I've moved on from renting rooms and everything, but I still wanted to house hack, right? I still want to reduce my tax liability, my costs. And so, what I am doing is of course, I am a real estate investor, which now I have a business. I made it into a business. Of course, I have the money cheese medcast. So I rent out my rooms to my business, and so there's a whole bunch of tax benefits that comes along with that. And I do have a podcast episode where we talk about some of the real estate investing benefits, and that one is in my real estate cheese medcast, but I also have another tax episode that I just released a few weeks ago in just taxes in general, and that one's on the Money Choose Mid Podcast, and I will link both of those episodes down below so you can get a little bit more savvy on the tax system because that's one way to start building wealth, reducing your tax liability by understanding the tax code and understanding how real estate plays a part in that. And one of the ways is again bringing in income, finding a way to bring in income with your property, and that's mostly if you already have a house, you already bought your first home. Now, if you don't have your first home, this is the perfect time to create a strategy. And I know again, it might seem like out of reach for you, especially, you know, if you haven't saved the 20, 25% of a down payment. But just like how I mentioned earlier, that I was able to buy my first house through the VA home loan, which meant I didn't have to pay a down payment per se. I still had like closing costs, but I didn't have to worry about a 20% down payment. There are options out there for you. Don't think that just because you don't have the 20%, that buying a house is not doable for you. Now, you do also have the high housing price right, of course, but this is where if you kind of just create a strategy and if you're okay with doing a little bit of sacrifices, of being a little bit uncomfortable with your first house, you can really set yourself up for financial success and reduce your costs, but also start building a source of income, start building wealth by planning to buy your first property as an investment property versus seeing it as your first home. Because one of the things that I wish I would have done with my first home, like that was I knew that wasn't gonna be my forever home. Like it was I knew it was gonna be a first house. And so I wish I would have been a little bit more strategic on my first purchase because there are a lot of options that a lot of people are not aware of. First, a lot of people are not aware of the various types of loans that are out there for you. If you don't have that 20%, you have the FHA loan that you can go as little as 3.5% of a down payment. Now, little side note, you will have to pay mortgage insurance, and that's like an extra hundred dollars or whatever, depending, and that's additional to your mortgage. So, on top of that, and that's just because you didn't put 20% down, but don't let that deter you because you will gain something bigger, even if you have the that PMI, right? The private mortgage insurance. Because these types of loans, now you have the FHA loan, you have the USDA loan, which if you're wanting to live in a rural area, like and you know, you meet the income requirements that's accessible to you. You have conventional loans that do allow to put a little bit less percent, but again, you have the PMI. But again, don't let that deter you because all of these will give you the ability to purchase up to a four-unit property. So this is where I say that I wish I had understood that more at the beginning. You know, that my first house was awesome and it definitely set me on the path that, you know, brought me to where I am now. But man, I could have had an easier time. I could have built uh a little bit more wealth, reached my goals a little bit faster had I known that with my first purchase, with my first home, I could use these loans. I am eligible to get up to a four-unit property, meaning you could get a quadplex, right? And you can house hack that. You could live in one unit and then rent out the other ones, and then so you reduce your expenses, and also you have the ability of bringing in income, building that wealth, and now you have your first rental property. And so this is where I say that a little bit sacrifice, a little bit of being uncomfortable the first few years can really set yourself up because yeah, like I understand that when you want to go buy your first house or whatever, it's exciting, you get your first house, but you can really create something if you just say, you know what, I'm gonna buy this quadplex. And mind you, sometimes they're like outdated, and and mind you, they might be in some random areas, but it's still doable. I think a lot of times we get lost in the current state. You have to see past it, see the vision, remember your goals and see how this one quadplex can really accelerate that journey and help you get there faster. And not only that, you have just now stabilized yourself because you have the multiple sources of income, you have three other units, you have an asset that's making you money, and you have reduced your tax liability because now you have opened the door to a whole bunch of deductions and tax benefits that real estate brings you, and also again, reducing your expenses. So it has stabilized you. And on top of that, by choosing to be an ethical landlord, an investor, you have now made housing affordable and safe for three other people. So just think about that impact, and you could do it, and you could just stay like that. You can then, after that, once you build enough equity or you save up for another down payment, then go off and buy your first house that you do want to live in, knowing that now you have sources of income and can continue growing that if you wish, or just help offset your expenses or slowly build financial freedom. So just imagine that. Like it doesn't have to be some big thing. I think that's where a lot of people get lost, is that they think that it takes a lot of properties, that it takes a lot of money to make a significant impact on your life. But no, with just your first property, you can do that, and it doesn't have to be a quadplex, like just buying that first house. Let's say you buy a house next to a college, then you can rent rooms out to college students, and then eventually you move out and then continue renting out the rooms. That's very popular. College students are used to living with other people and stuff because it helps keep their costs low and then it brings you income. So just think of that. There's so many different ways. I'm not gonna get into kind of like every single strategy. Again, if you're interested in that type of stuff, then go check out my real estate cheese med podcast and we talk about all that stuff. And also, quick little plug before I forget I did start a Latina community. If you're interested in learning about real estate, one of the best things is surrounding yourself with other Latinas who either are in real estate investing or are also curious about real estate investing. I'll link my community down below. It's free to join, and I'm posting five-minute breakdowns and so on. And so it's growing. And the goal is to get to 20. I just started the community, so I want to get 20 Latinas so then I could start doing like monthly, I don't know what I'm gonna call it yet, maybe real estate cheese and coffee or something. I don't know, but I do an hour a month, and y'all could ask questions or stuff like that, and I'm really just collaborate, network, and support each other if you are interested in real estate investing. So quick little plug there, but again, so that's what you can do with real estate for yourself. There's so many ways that you can help yourself stabilize, and that's what I did at the beginning of my journey, and now I have moved more to having a positive social impact in our community because now that I got myself out of that survival mode, I could actually pull back and be like, okay, now that I stabilize myself, I want to figure out how I can help my community, and so I started looking at real estate as a tool because number one, now I'm out here buying rental properties that I don't plan to live in, right? And so I decided to go towards the strategy of small multifamily and particularly distressed ones that are usually owned by slumlords. I am currently working on one right now. So again, I'm documenting that journey on the other podcast and also on my social media. If you follow me on there, I post a little bit here and there about that and on my TikTok. So now my passion is that I'm over here purposely looking for these slumlord properties, getting them at a huge discount, and then fixing them up, making them safe. Right now, let me tell you, the stairs for this one property was were horrible. I don't know how this landlord was not scared of a lawsuit, but yeah, I'm fixing them up, and the key thing is that I'm keeping them affordable. Of course, my goal is to make income, but I don't have to be at the top right of the market. Like I don't need to try to like squeeze out every penny out of my tenants, and I'm choosing to be like ethical, making sure I'm doing the maintenance, making sure I'm keeping up with any safety issues, things like that. So that's another way that I am driving a change, and it's now also evolving to where I want to work with the city, and so that's my next step of contacting the city, introducing myself, and asking, you know, like, hey, how can I help combat the affordability issue? Because that is one thing that the city that I'm in is actively working towards. I'm in San Antonio and they've been really trying to help bring costs down. One of the ways is by not being as strict of where you can put an additional unit. So, which is one of the reasons I bought this property, is that I can put another, they call them casitas over here, maybe a one, another additional one bedroom back there, so then it becomes a three-unit property. And so finding ways to do that, and they give grants in here and there, but also networking with other investors. So I know other investors, there's some in Dallas that I know about. One of them, shout out to her. Her name is Monica, and she is a builder in Dallas, and she's an activist out there and actively pursuing to working and pushing affordability, building affordable properties out there. So networking, working with each other, working with the city to help keep these costs low. And that's a way that I didn't expect or a route, I guess, that when I first started this real estate investing journey, I didn't think it would take me down this path. And, you know, I could choose to just, you know, stay with what I'm doing and continue building multiple sources of income and continuing to build wealth. But I want to also be a voice for the community and also use the income that I make to, you know, support programs, support movements that will help our community. And I think that's one thing that becoming a real estate investor can help you achieve. If you are passionate about social change and things like that, real estate is one of the I feel now again, I'm a little biased because I'm an investor, but I feel like that's one of the great ways to get involved, whether it's just again, with yourself, becoming an ethical landlord, targeting these areas that really need real estate investors because there's a lot of houses out here, which is one of the reasons we have this housing prices, is that we have a lot of older properties that may be vacant or just they need some help. You fix them up, bring them into the housing market and making them available, but also being one of the people that helps keep costs low and all that. So a lot of different ways in which real estate investing can help combat the home affordability issue. And so, again, of course, we're building generational wealth, it breaks the financial struggle cycle. So my daughter is going to be better off right now that I'm not struggling myself. That's less financial anxiety for me. She set up investing for her as well. Like it just breaks that cycle and it's building that generational wealth. And so, yeah, I feel like I'm rambling at this point. But overall, I just wanted to come on here and just kind of advocate for real estate investing. Because let me tell you, we need more real estate investors, we need more of our voices. Because let me tell you, I'm in this space and I've been in this space for well three years. And let me tell you, the people that are out here, it's no wonder that that negative stigma is out there. Because yes, a lot of them are out here for the money and trying to squeeze out everything, and they don't care about the community, which is why I am pushing, and my goal is to get more of us out here investing in real estate. And it's an uphill battle for sure, but I'm on a mission. I'm on a mission to increase how many Latina investors are out here. So if you are interested again, I have my community, I have a free course down below. I'll link it down there too. But yeah, I'm gonna get back to also teaching real estate and having that course available. But I think I'm focusing right now on building that community before I then switch again and spread myself out for a course. But you could always, you know, hit me up, schedule a call with me if you want more kind of like a one-on-one stuff like that. But I have a whole bunch of like videos and free content podcasts like on my other podcasts. I have some here on the Money Achievement podcast before I split up the podcast. But other than that, like don't let the fear of the horror stories of the real estate horror stories that you might hear of the bad tenants or this and that, don't let that deter you. Don't let the high prices, that high interest rates, all of that, don't let that scare you off. All of that is doable. Let me tell you, like this last property, I have it at a 875, and I had one almost at 7%, and both of them are doing just fine. It's just strategy, planning, and all that, and just finding the right deal to make that work. Everything is doable, don't let that stop you. Money, I know one of the biggest barriers or obstacles that people think would be something that stops them or prevents them from investing in real estate is the idea of money. Let me tell you, there's money everywhere. There's so much money out there. I had the same mentality, and then now that I've been in it, I learn about like hard money, private money. There's even DSCR loans where you don't even have to show your income. Like you just get a loan based on the potential rental income that you're going to get. Like, money is actually one of the less things that will prevent you from investing in real estate. It's actually just like finding the right deal at the right price, at the right, you know, that's going to give you what you want. But again, I'm gonna stop rambling. Let me know your thoughts. What is it that is stopping you from investing in real estate? Let me know. Again, my goal is to make more Latina investors. All my information is down below. Other than that, I will see you in the next episode. Bye.