Afford Anything

Category: Real Estate

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#390: Ask Paula: Help! My Bills Are Too High

We start this episode with two anonymous callers who have opposite problems: one says her bills are too high, while the other is worried that she’s saving too much.

Anonymous (“Izzy”) saves A LOT. She wants to relax about her spending more, and start including more joy into her life. How should she approach the next 10 or 20 years, so that she can enjoy her financial security?

A different anonymous caller (“Starlight”) has the opposite problem: her expenses are mounting. Her bills make her uncomfortable. She wants to shake up her investments so that she can tap her assets in order to make her payments. Ideally, she’d also like to buy a house in Europe within the next 10 years. How should she do this?

John liked the episode with Bill Bengen, where we discussed the 4% rule.  However, he questions whether that rule should really be applied to the FIRE community.

Steve is a landlord who needs his property to cash flow, but doesn’t like to raise rents. What should he do?

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

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#389: Invest Anywhere: Should I Bother Investing in Long-Distance Real Estate?

Welcome to Invest Anywhere, our monthly series on long-distance real estate investing. 

Invest Anywhere airs on the First Friday of each month and is co-hosted by Paula Pant and Suni Rao.

__________

Today we tackle one of the most common questions we hear:

“Should I bother investing in real estate?”
“Is the hassle worth it?”
“What’s the upside? Is this worth my time and effort?”
“Do I really want to do this?”
“Maybe I should just stick to index funds …”

How can you methodically, systematically dig into answering this question?

In this episode, we’ll help you take a personal inventory of four factors: your time, capital, relationships, and mindset.

Time, capital and relationships are the resources at your disposal, and your mindset governs how well you’ll use those resources.

These four factors will have a major influence on your experience as a long-distance investor.

And there’s good news:

Plenty of successful investors start out with empty coffers in one or more of these arenas.

They’re strapped for cash. They’re pressed for time. They lack connections.

In this episode, we discuss how to inventory your time, cash and connections (you might have more than you think!), as well as what to do if you’re lagging in one or more of these arenas.

Enjoy!

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#384: Invest Anywhere: Six Strategies to Make Money in Real Estate

Welcome back to the third episode in our special series, Afford Anything Presents: Invest Anywhere.

Invest Anywhere is a new monthly series that runs on the First Friday of each month. It lays out the information you need to invest in real estate at a distance.

Many of you want to invest in real estate, but you live in a high-cost-of-living area. (Ahem, California and New York). The homes in your city are prohibitively expensive, and they offer lackluster returns.

You could invest in a lower-cost area like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Omaha or Wichita … but HOW? That sounds terrifying.

We’re here to dismantle that fear, piece by piece, by sharing our knowledge and experience.

The Invest Anywhere series is dedicated to giving you the guidance you need to make smart, confident choices about investing out-of-state.

It’s co-hosted between myself (Paula) and esteemed real estate investor Suni Rao, who’s experienced everything ranging from buy-and-hold rental investing to (accidentally) wholesaling. She’s managed short-term and long-term rentals. She’s owned houses, multi-units, and even a mobile home park.

She joins me in this episode to talk about a variety of strategies that will help you make money in real estate.

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Inflation, Illustrated

Hi there!

This post is an illustrated, pared-down version of my recent “Inflation, Explained” podcast episode.

It was created as a simple, easy-to-digest guide to help you understand the current inflationary environment in the US.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

What is inflation?

Simple definition: […]

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#379: Invest Anywhere: 4 Benefits and 5 Challenges of Long-Distance Real Estate Investing

Welcome to our First Friday bonus episode.

Once a month, Afford Anything presents a special feature called Invest Anywhere, in which we teach our audience how to invest in real estate from thousands of miles away.

We kickoff today’s episode by discussing current market conditions. Yesterday the Fed raised interest rates by another 50 basis points, which means mortgages are more expensive than they’ve been in years. Additionally, jittery investors worried about an impending recession led the stock market to its worst day of the calendar year so far.

How should we interpret the current market conditions? Is this a good time to buy an investment property? We cover this in the first 20 minutes of today’s episode.

Next, we discuss 5 challenges associated with investing in long-distance real estate investing: (1) fear, (2) accountability, (3) traction, (4) stress, and (5) relationships.

We elaborate on each challenge and offer solutions.

Finally, we discuss 4 benefits to investing out-of-state: (1) competitive ability, (2) diversification, (3) returns, and (4) repeatability. We elaborate on four types of diversification: economic, strategy, business cycle, and asset based.

Enjoy!

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#373: Invest Anywhere: The 5 Ways Real Estate Makes Money

On the First Friday of each month, we air a special bonus episode.

Historically, these episodes have been the same as our normal weekly shows. They alternate between interviews and community Q&A episodes.

But for more than a year, I’ve wanted to create something special, something that makes these monthly bonus episodes stand out […]

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By Paula Pant

#343: Are We Heading for a Housing Crash in 2022?

The real estate market in 2021 has been bonkers.

That’s the technical term.

From 2012 to 2020, home prices nationwide rose at an annualized average of 5.8 percent per year.

From April 2020 to April 2021, home prices climbed 17.2 percent.

This sudden surge in prices has many homeowners and would-be investors fearful of a crash. The memories of the stark price run-up prior to The Great Recession are all too salient.

What goes up must come down, right?

Not exactly. In this episode, we walk through market fundamentals — discussing housing supply, lumber prices, and the distinction between cheap credit vs easy credit — to illustrate how today’s market is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

More importantly, we offer tips for everyone — whether you’re a renter looking to get into your starter home, an empty-nester looking to downsize, an owner-occupant who wants to lock in your gains, or a curious aspiring investor who wonders if it’s too late.

Enjoy!

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By Paula Pant

#342: Ask Paula: How to Make Smarter Real Estate Decisions

Russell is a busy professional who’d like to invest passively in real estate. Is there data he can use to compare this approach to owning and managing their own properties?

Laura wants to purchase her first investment property in Miami. Should she cash out some RSUs and stock from her company to use as a down payment? And what type of mortgage is she eligible for since she already owns a home?

Jordan and his wife own three properties and are under contract on a new house since they have a new baby on the way. Should he sell any of his existing properties to be in a stronger cash position, thus mitigating the risk of future fluctuations in his income as a real estate broker? Or should he keep his rental properties since his goal is to reach financial independence through rental income?

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

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By Alyssa M

#339: How to Invest in Real Estate, Debt-Free, from Thousands of Miles Away, with Rich Carey

Have you ever thought, “I’d like to invest in rental real estate but there are no cheap properties in my area!”

“Homes in my city are too expensive. I’d have to invest out-of-state, but that sounds terrifying.”

Or have you ever thought, “I’m curious about real estate but I’m not a fan of the idea of taking on all that debt.”

Today’s interview is right up your alley. We talk to Rich Carey, who bought 20 single-family rental properties in Alabama, totally debt-free, while stationed in Germany and South Korea.

He invested not just out-of-state, but entirely from outside the country.

He bought his properties free-and-clear. And he did it on a military salary while raising two kids.

This interview originally aired in June 2018.

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By Erin @ Team Afford Anything

#309: Are We Due For Another Housing Market Crash?

Are we in a housing bubble?

Are we going to see a repeat of 2006 all over again?

Are there any good investment deals to be found right now?

These are the questions playing on many people’s minds, and we seek to explore the answers in today’s First Friday bonus episode.

We start by exploring some of the forces that are at play in today’s real estate market. What separates the market of 2006 from the market of today?

In the second half of the episode, Paula explains how and why she chose to buy a duplex in Indianapolis, despite being in a seller’s market. There are deals to be had if you know where to look and what to look for.

Enjoy!

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