Y’all. It happened.
I just bought my first apartment building!
It was my goal last year to start investing in commercial real estate (5+ units). I ended up doing a few more single family and duplex projects in 2020 instead.
I really, really wanted to invest locally, in Los Angeles — a city I love — but it felt daunting to do it on my own in a cutthroat market.
I was waiting to find the right people to partner with… and this year, I did!
My partners on this deal have years of multifamily experience, specifically buying rental properties in South LA. And I appreciate the ethical way with which they approach being landlords. So we went in together and made this first one happen as team.
For me, this is just one more step along my FIRE journey (Financial Independence, Retire Early) — replacing my active J.O.B. income with passive income from real estate. This means saving consistently, investing for cashflow, and tracking all my expenses.
When all of my basic needs are met via investment income — then that’s financial freedom!
aka, I can still WORK, it just won’t be to LIVE. (and let me tell you, it’s not always “passive” income when you’re starting out!)
This property is a little over 2 miles from the $5 billion SoFi Stadium project in Inglewood. (Coincidentally, I also work with the stadium’s sustainable landscape designer on affordable housing projects across LA.)
Since I typed up this post, our real estate investment firm LME Investments actually just closed on another 7 unit nearby as well, putting us at 17 units in a little under 4 months.
A few of my friends and family invested in this first deal with me, and it felt good to be able to do it with people I love. I’m so grateful for the trust folks placed in me to do that! I couldn’t have made this next step to apartment buildings without their support.
What’s cool about the way we invited people to invest in the apartment was that they get to own a piece of it without having to do any landlording. No one will be calling them with a broken toilet issue, but they still get the rent checks! So it really is a “passive income” investment. With so much else going on, not everyone wants to jump into doing real estate full time, though they still want to own a piece of appreciating assets.
Congrats to the team and all the investors on this apartment. I know there will be many more to come… we are already working on the next one!
And to be clear, I fully support all people who have historically been excluded from homeownership who use real estate as a vehicle to provide for themselves and their families. For better or for worse, homeownership is how people in this country build wealth that they can pass to their kids. It makes my blood boil to see BIPOC movement leaders attacked for doing just that.
I’ve been helping a lot more people get into real estate investing these days, so I’m super grateful for everyone who said YES early on in my journey and believed that we could use real estate as a pathway to financial freedom. I really want to bring people along on the power of real estate investing by sharing tools and resources.
We are building generational wealth and being ethical stewards of the land, which is people’s homes.
I’m not there yet, but I love this quote:
“One press account said I was an overnight success. I thought that was the longest night I’ve ever spent.” -Sandra Cisneros
It is possible!
Are you working toward financial freedom? I want to hear about it!