Jacob's College Investment Property-The Numbers

Through house hacking his home in college, Jacob has graduated from the University of Oklahoma with no student loan debt and a big equity position in his first investment property.  He's now renting the home and has great cash-flow as he begins his career in the Air Force where he will soon start pilot training.
This the is the second half of the podcast conversation and we're focusing on the numbers and the details of how he was able to purchase the home at a young age with little credit and low down payment. 
If you're in college, getting ready to attend, or have a child preparing for and considering the cost of attending university this episode has great insight on how to do it a little differently without sacrificing a great college experience.

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you're finding us at now.  You can also find us on YouTube @Fortherealgood, by clicking HERE or on Instagram @RealEstatefortheREALGood. Until next time, happy listening.

To reach out email: nathancarsten@gmail.com

Transcript

Welcome back to the inaugural episode of real estate for the real good I'm Nathan

Carsten your host a North Texas realtor firefighter and real estate investor throughout my real estate Journey I've

witnessed a transformative potential that real estate offers individuals families and communities whether you're

considering buying your first primary residence amidst today's challenging Market pondering the idea of investing

in real estate for financial growth or simply seeking to use your home to bless others intentionally this podcast is for

you normally I'll have the pleasure of co-hosting this show with my wife Kristen however today we have a special

guest co-host my 10 year old son Brady I just couldn't pass up the opportunity

for us to learn together today from our father-son guests who are just a few steps ahead of our current season of

life in today's episode which is part two we'll be diving into the heart of

Jacob's story if you haven't already I highly recommend tuning in to episode 1A for the full context of Jacob's

background and upbringing it'll provide a solid foundation for what's to come in both episodes he'll be sharing how he

cleverly turned his first home into an investment property during his college Years remarkably Jacob defied the norm

steering clear of the burden of student loan debt and instead successfully graduated college from the University of

Oklahoma with a positive GPA and net worth stay tuned as Jacob Reveals His Story of

acquiring Leasing and managing the property with minimal initial investment This brilliant approach not only allowed

Jacob to enjoy three rent-free years during his university of life but also led to significant appreciation in the

value of his home while part A's Focus was on Jacob's upbringing in his parents home a vital Foundation that prepared

him to independently own and manage property at such a young age today we'll

get into the numbers and details to provide real-life insights we'll talk down payment assistance for first-time

homebuyers co-signing on a mortgage cash flow return on investment managing

tenants and will even touch on facing the unexpected like a tornado hitting your house so get ready for an inspiring

and informative ride as we unravel Jacob's extraordinary real estate Journey let's change gears here a little

bit and really get into some of the uh details on on you purchasing your home

uh so yeah so just uh from the beginning uh your you graduated high school yeah

you're 18 years old um and and you're you're living in Keller Argyle at the time in in DFW in

your parents house and uh and and you're moving to University of Oklahoma what

were your thoughts around buying instead of moving you know what what money I think kids would do is is or you know

kids I say I should say young men young young adults going to college uh

either moving into a dorm or just renting um what what were your thoughts on that

and maybe even kind of what if you had any fears going into that situation yeah so coming out of high school

um I had a unique opportunity Air Force is always kind of what I've wanted to do and um so being able to you know put in

for the scholarship and be able to get that kind of start of the foundation for all of us

um you know there were a lot of times and instances even with that where God was you know leading and

um you know kind of just showing us the way to go um but the University of Oklahoma does

have a um a requirement that you live in the dorms for your first year so I did live in the door okay that's great okay

um so that was 100 required we really at this point hadn't even thought about what I would do afterwards it was just

kind of getting there getting through the first year I was the first I was the first one to do anything like that to go

to a big university to go live in the dorms to go we're all just figuring it out at the same time yeah even even to

rewind a little bit uh as he was growing up and being raised I

talked to him about college and him going to college and he wanted to go to college and and get a degree because he

wanted to be a pilot and you had to have a degree for that but I told him from the beginning if you're going to school it's not going to

come out of my pocket you know I'll help you out in some ways as far as like a community college I can help you pay for

that but you're going to have to work and you're gonna have to earn your way through school you know if you earn a scholarship then

that's even better and so he knew that going into it and so his choices as he grew up through school

were to set him up for that for for some type of scholarship to be able to get his school paid for it yeah and so

that's where he started and he was able to do that and the earn that ROTC scholarship to pay for four years of

school all the schoolman was paid for the only thing that wasn't included was you know

living expenses room and board right okay so his freshman year like he said he had to live on campus and so we we

told him since you earned a scholarship we're not putting a dime towards school we really weren't paying for anything for him we paid for his uh the room and

board for the Freshman do you remember uh what it was was it a monthly payment was it a semester payment no it's a

semester payment so you got to have a big chunk of cash up front ready by September I think is when the payment

was due for the first semester and then the next semester is probably by February board that's that's obviously a

bed to sleep in and then it was at their food yeah all the food was included and

a bed to sleep in and I want to say for a year was about eleven thousand

dollars yeah so getting close and then and that's for not nine months yeah

about nine months two semesters yeah so that was all the food

um and everything we go to the dining facilities and we can eat as much as we want whatever we want uh that type of

stuff really kind of moving us from being high school students into being

responsible adults but they took care of a lot of the things for us while we're learning how to study Etc that's kind of

a whole goal behind all of it I feel like that's a good transition to stay in a dorm for that first year yeah so we

get to meet so many people yeah so that's coming out to about 1100 a month or so yeah and and you're I mean that's

obviously it's a big a pretty big chunk of money but but it like you're saying

as a as a young adult transitioning directly out of your parents house it was a great place to be you didn't have

to worry about all the details you're already figuring out how to do school yourself

starting it's all you know it's all all the responsibility is yeah as far as carrying your coursework

so that's great yeah if I could rewind a little bit too we did have the discussion um before going to school I had always

grown up thinking that I was gonna go to the Air Force Academy that's something that if you get in and you're able to

actually go there then it's it's all completely covered and so that was that was part of it and then we were talking

to some people from church and they told us about this option with the ROTC because I knew I wanted to fly for the

Air Force I knew I wanted to serve in aviation's always been something that you know was a source of Wonder for me but

um looking at going to the academy for me my little brother was starting High School same time I would be starting there and um when you're there you just

don't get to see your family much you're you're stuck there it's a military academy it's just how it goes so I've

been searching for a different way to do it to be able to be around them but also realize those types of streams so we

came across this um this path and when we did have that conversation it was kind of hey you get a full ride or

you're not going to a big university off rip that's just not something that we're going to do you're not gonna be able to pay for that off uh off rip and we're

not going to do that just because just not um the way that we were going to do it yeah

um and so this is really a story of listening to God because when it came

down to it and applying for the scholarship um it was just a couple percent of

people that even get the scholarship to begin with and then on top of that I didn't want to be an engineering major

um which increases your chances probably 10 20 fold of getting this scholarship right and um

I did in the engineering track and stuff like that through High School very blessed to have the opportunities that I did in high school to work on Robotics

and things like that and I had the mind for it I was good at it but I didn't I didn't enjoy it I hated it and I knew that if I went to college I don't I

wouldn't have loved it and I may not have finished it um just because it wasn't something that I enjoyed but actually through working

with you guys on Christmas lights a little bit and also working and detailing uh cars with my dad I knew

that I liked you know the business side of things I like making money for myself I like being able to do those types of

things and be in control of when I worked how I worked and I was like Hey a

couple of schools actually offer like entrepreneurship Majors I've never heard of that because I didn't you know I thought about going to the academy and

when you go there it's kind of you do what you're told to do you know um which is great for some but for me I

didn't necessarily want to do that as much as I wanted to be around my little brother um but you know I I distinctly remember

I think this is one of the first things that I ever truly went against my dad's you know word yeah for is was going for

the business degree because even the colonel that I talked to I had an interview with the colonel about getting the scholarship he

was like Hey man like if you think that you can like graduate with an engineering degree go ahead and put that

down because you're you will get a scholarship you've got the resume for it and everything but you're going to throw that all away if you you know go for the

business yeah because nobody gets that that doesn't happen on the scholarship it says mechanical engineering aerospace

engineering all these different engineering or you just check the box says others that's terrible it's like

you'll never get a scholarship yeah it said like meteorology like all the things that the Air Force is like

fighting for they need these types of people and everything uh and then it yeah it was literally just a box that said other it wasn't even specified for

business or for entrepreneurship but like you get lumped in with underwater underwater basket weaving you get on

lumped in with you know everybody else um and with no real you know guide for

them to show okay this is what you're trying to do it's just other and then like I remember my code for my um what's

called everybody gets like m e something what it like mechanical engineering something mine was ogy it was just other

like it's literally just nothing it didn't stand for anything and it's just like they just type numbers yeah they

put so yeah I mean walk through that that decision process a little bit as as far as like everybody's telling you yeah

I need to do this thing but and so what's what's allowing me to yeah so this is just one of the things that it

really was following God because I made so for me I prayed about it and man everybody was saying just Do engineering

and for me it makes sense I've always we've always been very logical thinkers and thinking okay hey if you got a

better chance of doing this it's a means to an end you can do it for four years and you can get your scholarship and go fly you never have to do anything after

that that has to do with engineering at all the colonel told me the same thing saying he was like Hey man get your degree go fly like you don't ever have

to be an engineer you don't ever have to do anything related to it uh you know I think the stat is like 80 of college

graduates never do anything related to their actual major and it's even more so

um with the military if we get a job like that we're not yeah you know if I'm flying I'm not the one designing the plants anymore I'm just buying them and

so that's what everybody told me and they're like you can do it like just suffer through it even if you don't like

it whatever just because it made sense and for me it made sense too but there was something that you know was holding

me back because really truly like in high school I was really good like I had 99s and hundreds in all my engineering

classes like I had the mind for it just made sense I didn't have to do the homework and stuff like that to get it

and so making like looking at it logically it made sense yeah I can do it

I can get through it and I'll be good um but after praying about it and stuff it was kind of one of those things that

God said just trust me yeah you know just just trust me and so for me it it

really was it felt like giving it all up yeah um because they they everybody said

it's it's you're throwing it away and like you are not going to get the scholarship and even if you do it's gonna be probably the half scholarship

because they did offer that as an option it's yeah yeah thank you for a song yeah I know you were there yeah exactly

that's great and um but you know the half scholarship probably it we we probably could have made that work but

um you know that was kind of what we had discussed though is it was either Community College or you know get it all

paid for yeah and um so I would have had to find a different route and so with that it was just like hey this isn't

your hands God like this doesn't make any sense it shouldn't happen but if it does I know that it's

you and that you are the one giving me this opportunity and so throwing like throwing it out there I remember I

remember checking the box I had to scroll all the way to the bottom okay I had to go all the way to the bottom I'm sitting there on my computer forever and

I'd put my you know favorite universities and where I wanted to go I'd put all my stats in there I'd put

how much community service I had um you know my GPA in high school my uh you know Varsity track and football and

that type of stuff on there put my whole resume on there ready to go and the last thing that I did even though it was at

the very top it was at the very top of the thing it's supposed to be the first thing that you pick the easiest thing that you pick this is the last thing

that I did and I went on there and I scrolled all the way to the bottom and I picked ogy other yeah and um I submitted

it and then it was just waiting from there and I really don't even remember a whole lot of um like stress after doing

because I remember like the interview we were sitting there they were trying to help prep me for the inner View and I

was just like I was a mess like I started crying while we were talking like I'm 18 at this point and like but I

I was a mess I was like I don't know how to do this I've got to go talk to somebody that's in the military Colonel with that never been around anybody like

that in the military and super stressed out but after I submitted it it really for me I don't remember

there was a whole lot it was like hey it's done it's in God's hands you can't do anything about it at this point and

that's that place to surrender yeah exactly and that's that's exactly what it was surrendering everything that I knew that I had wanted to do to

something that really seemed impossible because I remember getting back so I was walking down the stairs and he was at

work um when the email popped up I was like because I don't even it's from like

uh Colonel almond or something like that but it was a government email and I was

like I don't get those normally so like those don't usually come through so I was like I think this is it so I literally I sat down on the stairs

started scrolling through I saw all the stuff at the top and scrolled through and looked on there and said

congratulations you've been awarded with the type seven which is type seven it was a full ride scholarship too

any University that will offer you in-state tuition and I I just sat there

and I just smiled and I immediately called him I still had the I still had the email pulled up and called him and I

was like dude I got it and he was like nah you're lying like like are you serious like blah blah and you're just

pumped and my mom came she was crying we're sitting there on the stairs and I didn't I didn't move for a little while because it was just like so good man God

God is so good but then I looked at the stats after that it was like a quarter of a percent of people got the

scholarship that I got in that year like nobody got to and so I was wide open and

I've actually seen it a lot with people that got locked into a specific degree they went to college and then while they

were there they didn't like the yeah scholarship I mean the the degree that they had

um and if you switch your major you lose your entire scholarship and you have to pay it all back yeah

um and so you know that I was like golly I'm glad I didn't do that because I also

saw a lot of my friends that were engineering majors in there yeah you know just like love it and but they did

it for the scholarship and for me I was like I'm so glad that I did that exactly what I did and yeah but that's a hundred

percent God in listening to him and I think that perfectly leads into the rest of the story and how the rest of it came

out but yeah just being able to trust him yeah yeah that's a good thing part of that not having that engineering

degree gave him the time to be able to okay invest in this house and do what it took

to be able to yeah exactly that's great yeah so you've got your full ride scholarship you've you've gone through

your first year uh at OU living in the dorms

um what's what's uh what's happening in the summer after your freshman year uh that's that's causing you to make the

decision towards purchasing yeah so this actually started during the school year me and my dad so people are crazy like

at uh at the University like so I'm not even thinking about the next year yet

I'm just you know enjoying where I'm at making new friends and stuff like that and it's our it's only like November of

like our first semester right and people are saying hey like if you got your apartment yet like they're all filling

up I was like the heck are you talking about like are you like we've got

almost another year and they're almost all filled up what do you mean and they're just like yeah this is just how

it works and so a lot of the people that I went to school with are their parents are alumni they're you know whatever

it's called that they've um their legacies or whatever their parents gone there and so they don't they understand

how it works exactly so their parents have already you know prepaid for their um for their living for the next two

three years and so they're ready to go they're good they're like hey you like if you want to live with us or something

like that you need to get on this lease like within the next month I'm like this is November like we're still talking

about like paying for room and board next semester yeah and I gotta like figure out how to do this and um so then

I called my dad and he was kind of the same reaction like wait really like that already like this is how it's going like

that's wild okay cool what do we do and um I remember we had this I would so

what I would do I was like I was super skinny going into college and so I wanted to bulk up so I would

legitimately me and my buddy would spend like two three hours in the dining hall because it was buffet style all you

could eat we have the only buffet style Chick-fil-A in the world at the University of Oklahoma nice so we can go

up and get six chicken sandwiches the chicken nuggets oh yeah all the Nuggets all the fries

we also have the world's largest canes um on campus corner right there so if you want to go to the University of

Oklahoma that's why you go um but no so yeah the Chick-fil-A and the canes why else

um but no it was awesome and so the food was great and I would have legitimately

I've got pictures of it of me and my buddy would kill plates that are this High yeah like we would the the plates

are about this big and we would go through about 10 13 plates each we would just keep going keep going and we'd do

all our homework in there like that was our Sanctuary because for me I lived in couch Tower which is right next to the

calf okay um with so I would literally walk out of my dorm and the opening to

this massive Buffet is right there and they've got everything from you know I could have six different meals at once

they had Italian they had Greek they had you know just good old like home style they have chicken fried chicken and then

they had like the healthy stuff that was in the middle and everything but so I would just sit there and just eat and

I'd be like hey maybe feel like pizza right now or I want you know just a big old thing of chicken right now and so

I'd go and I get it all at the same time and I'd have like four cups of water and just be crushing it that's where um I

remember all my conversations about you know where I was going to live and stuff like that happen I remember when we when

the idea kind of came about we were talking about you know um not paying for school you know this

is the only thing that we're going to end up paying for um and stuff like that the only thing that I'd be responsible for

um as far as like financially while I'm in college and then what it means to you know pay

rent to somebody else to pay rent to an apartment so the same things that he said that he was learning from you know

the older guys at the station yeah he was able to share with me um you know hey like just a random shot

in the dark he was like What if we like what if he just bought a house you know and so then from there that kind of like

got the wheels carry that you know what I mean and so for me like it was kind of a shot in the dark for him and we were still looking at spots but it turned on

like a light in my head yeah from there so I started looking I started doing the numbers and stuff like that and you know

I'm using all my business classes and whatever I'm learning from there but more so just started looking at it I was

like okay I could pay this much for an apartment or you know if I get this many bedrooms in my house I can rent them out

to these people and then now I don't have to pay for anything yeah and so

that's all that really started out is as a way to get so like completely transparently it didn't start out as oh

you know it'll be this great investment will set you up for your future right um the thing for me I can have a place to

live yeah that's filling up and then also just like being fiscally responsible of money and money out you

throw money into an apartment it never comes back out right but even if I am paying a portion of my mortgage you know

if I'm paying the same as the other guys that are living in there I can get all that money back at the end

right and yeah the the cool thing is I had some friends that I was close with and stuff and I was like man these

people are paying like six seven eight hundred dollars a month to go live with four other people yeah in a trashed out

apartment yeah that and like the place isn't maintained all that well yeah and like I've been to some of those places

and I don't necessarily care to live there um I'd also wanted a dog too it's like

you gotta either pay extra to do that and I wanted to pit so when he says when

you're running your numbers um you're you're calculating did you

have an idea of what your house was going to cost what your mortgage is going to be and then

um you know before you actually got into the house and and had had some roommates what were your projections on on this is

utilities well your projections on your mortgage compared to what the rent you'd

be bringing in so that was the cool thing too is once I started running the numbers with it um I found out that not only would I be

able to benefit from this I would be able to help my friends out too because I could charge them 550 a month yeah and

so now they've got a house where I'm technically the landlord so they can paint the walls they can you know hang

stuff on the walls do whatever they want they can put up a TV which you can't do it all these other places and they've

got a backyard yeah so they've got a garage they've got all the different things um and so I was like man I can

help them out at the same time as helping myself out too but yeah looking at the numbers um I started out four bedrooms are like

almost impossible to find in the Norman area because most of them already bought up to be rent houses you know what I

mean and so that is what I found out is when we were looking at okay what can we

afford to go in on at the beginning um versus how much can we realistically

charge for that um four bedroom look like the sweet spot three bedroom could have worked yeah uh

it could have been good but I would have had to pay some you know and so my goal was to be able to make a little bit

monthly or at least Break Even to where I'm you know yeah and the the three-bedroom Market the price is about

the same as a four bedroom anyway so we thought if he's written out rooms why not go for the four right exactly and

really it started as a way to save money because we started putting the numbers together it's like man it's gonna be a

probably about eight hundred dollars a month yeah to rent a one room run one room out of a four bedroom apartment

that you share with the other guys share a bathroom so then with utilities and everything like that you it was probably

around eight and that's on the lower end because there's definitely more expensive ones than that yeah I have friends that are paying 12 1700 a month

every month of all four years of college yeah so I started looking the real estate there was not crazy this is

late 2019 early 2020. yeah and so we you know decided you know looking at it

running the numbers what mortgage would be things like that and um so we started looking for four bedrooms

early in 2020 with an idea of

here's how much it'll be if you have these three roommates then you can get away with not having to pay anything

right and I mean that's appealing for myself yeah exactly so that's kind of

just where it started yeah of course little did we know that you know Kobe was going to happen and all of those

type of things so as we're looking early 2020 covet hits in the real estate market was

crazy like you it was hard to find things and so we'd go up there everybody's trying to get out of the

apartments all of a sudden to get into the house yep and you know we didn't we didn't know

the future as far as what interest rates were going to do in the future all those things but as we were looking

we would drive up there look at a place and then it's already under contract yeah and we'd go back over there we made

several trips with the realtor we had a great realtor that was based out of Norman shout out to Carol she was

awesome yeah what's her name Carol yeah Carol what do we remember yeah

maybe we can put it maybe if we have show notes for our show I'll put it in the notes yeah

her and her daughter are both realtors in um in Norman okay and the okc-ish

area and they both helped us so yes team with us a little more

um as a first time home buyer how you know what suggestions or education were they really able to give

you um when the start and then I'll let you take over but um when we made that decision I said

okay here's what you need to do you need to find a realtor that's good you know the in the local area yeah one you feel

comfortable with and then go from there and let them kind of guide you as far as what the Market's

like and so he he had to search I don't know how many you look through you I remember you met with a couple of

Realtors yeah and so with that um he started telling me about that and I started looking I just go online like

realtor Norman Oklahoma because I don't know what else to do you know just looking online at Google and started

looking at the different ones and I set up phone calls like six of them whatever and uh talk to some of them and you know

explain my situation and the ones that you know they're kind of just like oh okay yeah for sure let's get you house

it's like you know I need you to understand what I'm doing here because I need to be able to trust you because I

don't live here already so good so what because we got kicked out of our um out of our dorms and we were living

at home doing virtual right yeah right virtual learning and so I'm already back with them and um what's called and so

looking at that I was like I need somebody that I can trust you know kind of see on my behalf and stuff like that

and then one of them that I talked to was Carol she's an older lady super sweet but also very intentional yeah she

talked to me she was like okay so what are you trying to do what do you need what is this and she like made sure that

she you know became me right for the negotiations for viewing homes like she

there's multiple times that she would go to homes for me and she'd be like you're not gonna like that one okay this is a

good one we pulled up together 2-1 she was like nope we're not going in there it's not good enough you know what I mean yeah and she would be like oh I

know the realtor's selling this one they're going to try and add some stuff to her or whatever you're not in the spot to be able to do that cool we'll go

to a different one until like it was perfect but I could see that from the beginning of the way that she handled the interaction and I think that felt so

great just yeah we want to highlight that for for others looking to to do

something similar to you especially if they don't have a lot of experience in buying or selling real estate is is is

not only just having a realtor yeah but but what I think you did so well and

what a lot of people don't do is it is you know they hear the first name of a realtor that they uh have heard of or

they or they just because they know someone who's a realtor without without doing taking the first that next step

that you did to really interview I I'm gonna call a few and I'm gonna and I'm gonna get a feeling and I and you know I

have I have enough sense in me to know like who's really looking out for my interest I may not know exactly what I need in this real estate transaction but

I but I but I do know I can I can figure out who I can trust exactly um and so yeah finding that that Realtor

that is going to listen to what you actually needed yeah and for you is something very particular it's not just any house you need to find a house that

that's gonna gonna do well with being able to rent by the room yeah yeah no

and I think an even bigger part of like trusting God was being able to somehow convince the guys that are going to live

with me to not sign any contracts because we bought the house in July we

bought the house in July okay we started school in August yeah and so every point from probably

January February Ford was just like hey guys like this is happening yeah and I

need you to trust me because they learn all the same stuff that everybody else is everybody else crazy back in November you know exactly exactly that's going on

so they the yeah the cool thing was um most of them well one of them was

transferring to OU and I actually was able to convince him to transfer to you so that he could be my third roommate

okay he went to high school with me a great kid and everything he was looking at different universities and stuff and so I started talking to him I was like

hey man like I know they'll use a little bit more expensive than some of the other places that you're looking at but

we'll be able to help you out by giving you a cheaper rent yeah and also he was kind of interested in Air Force as well

yeah and Oklahoma does an awesome thing that anybody in Oklahoma that joins ROTC

program gets to pay in state and so I was like and your first year here you won't have any uh contract you won't

have any you know requirement to serve if you don't like it so you can come into your trial bases

um and you get in-state tuition and we'll be able to help you out on your rent and stuff like that and he was like you know what this sounds like a great

idea to talk to his parents into it cool the other one was my best friend from high school played football with him all the way from middle school up stuff like

that we both ended up going to University he was my roommate in the dorms my first year and so talk to him

he knew he could trust me um and so he's like cool another one was just one of my buddies that I'd made and

he was able to talk his parents into it too just like hey trust this kid uh you know honestly like we

We Knew by God that it was going to happen but we didn't know how it was going to happen because the reality of

things is we were like yeah we were planning it out and we're like okay let's try to you know have something

yeah bought or under contract by May yeah you know that was like kind of the goal like get it done by like the end of

this uh semester so that we can kind of set up over the summer and stuff like that but like you said these houses were

getting bought up like they're crazy like it was like it would be quick so that was part of the deal with meeting

with Carol yeah we drove up there probably three or four trips we'd go look at houses with her yeah and finally

you know just get to know her she was great took the time intentional yeah and so she knew by that time she was walking

she could walk into a house by herself without yelling she knows what you're saying you could tell yeah what we would like she would FaceTime me it was so

funny you're trying to like yeah she was working with FaceTime and stuff but yeah it was awesome so now we got covered

going School shuts down you know he can't go back to school there's no

you had to schedule viewings and yeah the open houses were pretty strict okay yeah

um so yeah now we're getting closer now we're into May it's getting to June and

we're like you know I got Jake counting on me I got these other three guys counting on him because they trust him

that if he said that it was gonna happen yeah it was going to happen yeah and all I knew is that if God said it was gonna

happen it's gonna happen but I had no idea how that was gonna actually work yeah and you know always got to make a

sweat guy right but what yeah and the way that all the

things work because you know I thought okay well it'll be cheaper if we just go for the house route so let's do that I

didn't think about closing costs yeah I didn't think about down payment I wasn't thinking about any of that and then

Furnishing it all those things but just through God leading it all uh

we paid ahead of time for a cruise that we were going to go on in the summer it gets shut down because it covered now

I've got several thousand dollars sitting in the bank that we can be able to use for okay for closing costs and

then the other the other big thing was me getting sent home uh guess March beginning sent home in March allowed me

to I went back to In and Out In and Out never closed during covet okay and we were running full time all the time and

I was there every day because we started talking about it like oh shoot like this is gonna take something you know what I

mean we were out we were detailing cars I would go at like seven eight a.m in

the morning we would do two or three cars and then I'd go at 10 or 11 to In and Out work four five six hours and

then come home chill out go to sleep wake up do it again so let's let's talk a little bit about that too is as far as

like I mean obviously you guys it's you've got some you've got a little bit of lump sum cash you can use you've got

your your work in yeah after you're coming home after when kovitz said send everybody home uh as a

first time home buyer um what what was kind of the you bought

the house for how much was the purchase price on the house it was

172.72 I think yeah yeah I think that's about right 122 because it was on no I think it was on the market

Foreigner found a first-time homebuyer program out of Oklahoma so they did a three or three and a half percent down

payment Grant which so that brought the price it was a FHA yeah loan so yes FHA

loan obviously is the three and a half percent down requirement

um for the for the down payment yeah that's that's in addition to the the closing costs that a fire typically is

responsible for so the down payment was there are through that Grant which I think is where the 172 comes from and

that's what we ended up financing was 172. okay and then so the down payment

took care of the full three and a half percent yes yes that's great yeah okay yeah and it was a grant so you know

nothing owed back yeah first time home buyer do probably had some requirements on how long you had to stay there you

obviously had to be your primary residence yes yeah primary residence was the biggest thing um I think it was I think it was like a

two-year requirement or something like that but I was gonna be in school for the next three so we're like cool yeah sweet like we're we're set on all that

stuff you know and then so there was the closing cost is where you guys in and then Furnishing the closing costs and

Furnishing and so did you guys furnish the the bedrooms for the the tenants come in they took care of their own so

then and even now for the new tenants that are coming in I told them that you know their bedrooms or their areas and

so they're responsible for that but as far as you know um communal areas like the living room kitchen stuff like that I've got a

fridge for them I've got um so we did all that okay we got the fridge you got the couch and we'll get

into that yeah yeah um in in a minute but it did uh what was

that kind of the closing cost that you were kind of trying to come up with you remember I want to say they're around

eight thousand dollars yeah okay well I think that was that was total with uh Furnishing and stuff like that I think

because y'all are about 4 500 and I was about four grand I think maybe somewhere in there it might have

been like 6 500 for closing costs and then the rest yeah so y'all are y'all are purchasing a

170 675 000 home uh eight to nine thousand dollars down

including yeah Furnishing for the yeah yeah yeah so total moving cost about

eight eight to nine thousand dollars yeah that sounds probably about that that sounds right yeah because I remember I so through working and

everything like that I ended up putting about four or four and a half and then they had another about four or four and a half into it for

um we're about even on that what we put into it between furniture and then as you guys were getting qualified for the

loan yeah uh what was that that process like as far as you know you're you're 19

years old at this time you've had some work history but you don't necessarily have the work history to prove that you

can make this mortgage payment obviously you've got plans that yeah that are gonna take care of the mortgage payment

but you don't have that that work history to show that you previously yourself so you want to talk a little bit you guys talk a little bit yeah that

process works a big part of that Roots back down to the way that he raised us

um and especially him being able to to trust me um that I would take care of it because

you know co-signing was pretty much the only way that it happened yeah just because you know he had the work history

he had the you know the financial stability to be able to co-sign on it for them to basically say that if I

default on this loan then he's going to be responsible for it now did he just because he could qualify for does that

mean that that's something that he's going to want to or be able to pay for every month if I didn't do anything so

that that really came down to a decision and conversation between the two of us of hey this is going to take a lot of

responsibility you know out of me to make sure that these things are handled because if I don't handle them then

they're coming back on him since he is that that cosigner that default do you guys have any steps or processes in

place where you could at least confirm that that was being handled or was it a complete like hey Jacob's got this no I

mean I just trusted him in it um as far as how I wanted to do it I

wanted the home to be in his name that way it's his house and he's taking care of it that way he has that ownership

yeah which which also allows I mean because if it's in your name it's not you don't get any of the first time home

buyer benefits you know it's not your primary residence you don't qualify for that low that three and a half percent

down payment yeah obviously you don't get the grant uh exactly so I mean not only obviously for just the benefits of

his his financial future but for the for the benefits of being able to get in at

a low down payment right and I don't even I don't even think I thought about that at all I just knew I wanted it to

be his yeah so one thing we did do right when he turned 18 we got him with you

know student credit card to start building his credit and so he could put

his name on the loan he had a good credit score already the only thing he didn't have was the financial backing to

show that he could afford it and so that's where we came in as co-signers but when we went to closing day it's all

in his name and then Betty and I signed as co-signers as well yeah that that is a piece of information that I completely

forgot about yeah right after I turned 18 it was that the same month that I turned 18 that I applied for and got a

uh a credit card it's a student one you didn't need any previous credit or anything like that it's four college

students typically but 500 limit uh I just would have started it was a 1500 to start out

um yeah it was 1500 start out but then they also had like uh it was through Discover it's their Discover It student

and um I stand by I Mason ended up getting it

um my fiance got her first first credit card with it my another one of my buddies that's um commissioned what kind

of what kind of preparation do you feel like you had going into getting a credit card as far

as like did did you have an understanding of of the what type of interest rates credit cards charge when

you don't pay off in in what you know kind of obviously you know a lot of

students get themselves into a lot of trouble with a credit card if they don't know how to use it responsibly and so

that was one of the first things that you know we talked about and say okay how am I going to use this and this is the same advice that I've given to all

my friends that I've referred to get this card and my brother included my fiance as well

um is it was cool because it did come with like a 12 or 18 months zero percent

interest so that was cool awesome um and then it also did like the first year of cashback that you get they

matched it at the end of it and so the way that we discussed it is basically hey just use this the same way that you

use your debit card which you're getting money back for it yeah and uh so leverage it you know leverage it but

don't use it as actual credit don't don't don't carry a balance yeah past when um you have the uh interest rates

free interest rate you know what I mean uh because at that point you you dig yourself into a hole and you end up

getting behind on something that you may not pay off for another five years and um so that was really cool we were I was

able to do that just used it as mine there was before you got your car so I

use it as my debit card and then but also when I got I did some modifications

to my Jeep at the time I didn't lift rims tires the whole shipping but because I had that I was able to put it

on there and with the zero percent um I was able to carry about a little bit and just pay that off over time zero

percent and so that helped out my credit so then coming in so I think that's important part I mean just stop you for a second it's just is knowing yourself

yeah and so you know there's there's some of us that I think um Can can do well in being disciplined

to make sure that that's paid off and have a plan to get it paid off yeah some of us that

um that really you know would need to stay away from that type of situation because you know we just we you know

we've we've got it we've gotta we've got to almost pay with cash to kind of stay out of getting ourselves in trouble with

interest rates but it's great that you um I think yeah just we're disciplined in getting that stuff paid off and and

also establishing some credit for you yeah it could be a good tool to establish that credit but you have to do

it the right way so here's the number one rule for him was to never pay interest on a credit card yeah never

carry a balance yeah he had the zero percent introductory so we talked about that okay you can do this much yeah it's

gonna cost you this much every month you'll pay it off by this date yeah and I think that's that's the thing is that

so many people that do get in trouble with credit cards that I've heard about is is they think oh it's just it's free

money I can pay it back whenever I want and then they get and then you know after they've accrued so much interest then they start learning of how a credit

card actually works and so yeah just for for me and for other parents um you know just being really clear in

those Communications about about those finances yeah that is big because you know that was the goal from the very

beginning is never pay a dime of interest on a credit card or any you know anything besides like a loan uh

like a home loan or an auto loan something like that and so still to this day I have 100 payment history I've

never missed a payment never been laid on a payment and never paid a cent of interest on a credit card but just

because of that quick installment there at the beginning and that kind of goes into why I didn't have any checks or

balances in place as far as campaign is mortgage because he had already established that history with the credit

card he knew yeah he paid every month he set it up and so it was the same with the house

you know I told them okay here's when it's due here's how you set it up through your bank and it'll automatically take it out yeah and have

that in place and then just trusting him to do it and yeah you know the conversation like hey did you make sure

he was paid on time this month yeah take care of it okay and then and then it goes kind of goes back to obviously each each parent in in child or uh is going

to be in a little bit different situation we all have different personalities different um experiences uh and so just thinking

about a little bit you know how how this how this could be possible for people who don't necessarily have that trust

level built up yet um there are there are ways you know I think you know even just being able if

if you were always able to log in to the to the uh mortgage statement or

um to to the account or if you know if you set up it in a way that it was

Jacob's responsibility to pay you you know until you're off the mortgage or however that yeah works you know then

you're always making sure that payment is happening yeah um and so yeah I think there just are some strategies that that

parents can use to if they want to move forward in this way uh with their with

their child to kind of set them up like this there there are um yeah it's just some strategies that

yeah yeah and and I think those are good ways you know because it's going to be unique to

every family as far as you know how it works and that's I think

that's a good idea too to be able to check on that and it just depends on your situation yeah

absolutely so let's get let's get back to your house uh you've got a great realtor

um she's she's kind of weeding out the properties that you don't need to see you're living in DFW so you know having

somebody that you can trust find something that you're really looking for is is helpful for you there uh but you

guys find a house in July it's a it's a it's a four bedroom yeah um purchased it for 172. yeah and so

let's start in the room that's already coming in place yeah exactly probably found it at the end of June yeah I think

we found it at the end of June it was probably just after your birthday birthday would be June 23rd so it's like

in between his birthday and so probably the last week of June that we actually found it because we closed on like July

20 some or something like that yeah um but we had already put offers in on

what two others um but even with those it was kind of just to a point of I think we were

fighting God a little bit and the trust we were just like

they're a little bit older um and then a little bit just kind of like

not really the setup that we're looking for uh it's a way to put it but um you

know those fell through people were coming and they're offering six seven thousand dollars over asking price for

like how they were struggling just to like ask for you know so there's no way we're winning those bidding points right

um with this one I think what's funny is he didn't even know until we had already

closed that Carol actually never put eyes on this one before we put an offer in we all saw it on Zillow it was about

10 30 at night yeah and um he saw it on Zillow about and did you

send it to me or something you were there at the house yeah but I was upstairs so so I was upstairs and I

looked at it and then I came back downstairs because I was already about to go to sleep so I think maybe he texted to me because he was down in the

garage um either working out or hanging out there with the pups or something but um whatever just scrolling through Zillow

and I think he sent it to me and then I looked at it I was like dude this is legit like I like this a lot and so I

went downstairs or like kind of like started getting that feeling in your chest just that excitement and kind of like oh this might be it you know what I

mean and so I texted her then at that time and she was up like she got right

on phone call with me and she was like Hey this does look like exactly what you are wanting whatever and so for her she

knew the real too that was selling it and she was like okay this person's not going to be behind something that you know is going to be trash or anything

different than what they're advertising I know them I trust them so if you want we can go ahead and get an offer drawn

up I'll start working on it tonight and I was we like quick discussion I've had like five ten minutes we're like let's

go for it cool and so then that night um she was working on drawing up the

offer and then I was writing a letter to the current owners um just to kind of explain my situation

what I'm doing what I'm trying to do and things like that and I think that that had a huge you know impact on what the

final decision ended up being because he he recommended that I do that because for them to understand that hey we might

not be y'all's you know biggest after offer or anything like that but this is what we're trying to do we're doing it

out of you know Noble heart and I'm young just trying to set myself up and take care of you know other people at

the same time with it and it you know having her as a realtor I still was never hands off you know even though you

have a realtor out there because yeah she's got a lot of work she's got to do and this is important to me so I'm

constantly checking and I would check several times a day to see everything new pop that's important that Friday night it popped up and it had been on

for maybe an hour yeah and so showed him he liked it he got with her we suggest

we like this one because it was exactly what we wanted it was like man this is perfect it's almost too good to be true

the price was right everything thank you is listed for 168. and we

ended up going over we went over a little yeah yeah but um

he got with her she did the contract we go into Saturday and she's like okay they already have four three or four

offers already and we literally submitted probably we started working on our offer like 30 minutes after it was

listed so this is the insanity of what the market looked like right now yeah like so she she gets the offer in and

then comes back and tells them that they're they closed off to any other

offers and they're going to take their best one and let everybody know by Sunday night at 6 PM I believe yeah and

so he submitted the letter yeah and then it was just a waiting game to kind of see where we're gonna go from

there she also discussed about us going up on our offer because I think we offered like asking price at first we

offered the 168 and she was like Hey guys like just to be yeah like upfront with y'all I know how much you like this

house I haven't recommended this on the other ones because it wasn't yeah perfect and I didn't think that y'all should spend anymore for those yeah uh

but this one is legit and if y'all want it this is just the reality of things you're gonna have to go a little bit

over yeah and so we ended up we took that advice and we went up I guess it was too it wasn't a huge amount but I

think like three or four grand yeah on top of the offer so then that's great that you already had that relationship

with her that um you know she's she's not just trying to get you to make the highest offer on

any house that she can just make a sale and get out of there and she really wants you to find the right property for what you what you need so you guys win

the bid yeah and and yes tell me let's let's I mean

get into the weed a little weeds a little bit about the the numbers what would your mortgage payment what utilities and and then and what did you

end up you know you had some projections that you were going to hope you're hoping to at least cover your most of

your cost um so how did that end up working out yeah we had estimated that um you know with the houses that we're

looking at I think we were probably looking between like 160 and 185 ish was gonna be like what we were looking at so

this fell right in there on um and we had estimated somewhere between a thousand and what like 1300 or something

like that for the mortgage um when it was all said and done my mortgage was 11.81 a month and uh that's

with us growing everything and so then we just had emis did you have PMI

included in that initial yeah

so we had that but that was so that was everything that I was paying to the you know for the mortgage loan yeah

principle and interest yeah so that was all of that and then we had estimated

probably three to four hundred dollars in utilities um four people being there and so for uh three roommates charging

550 a month I'm making 16.50 um and so then so 1650 among three three

roommates so 550 by three got 16.50 is what I'm bringing in initially we had

estimated that I could probably count on about 1500 total um with utilities and stuff and maybe

bring in 100 150 bucks on top and you're talking about covering your utility

costs utilities and everything yeah oh yeah so that was that was what we you know what I kind of set out to do is you

know 550 is very reasonable especially comparatively to what everybody else paying um and so everybody's paying six 650

plus utilities and so we're like okay 550 they get to paint the rooms do whatever the heck they want whenever

they want they've got the space to park in a garage or driveway and stuff so we're like yeah still helping them out but also I don't even have to pay for my

utilities yeah and possibly making some money so you're really actually living for free and you have on top of yourself

and then you have about a hundred dollar cash flow on top of all that yes so initially

um initially that's how it ended up yeah um moving forward we did have our air

conditioning went out and so what I was able to do with that instead of shelling out twelve and fourteen thousand dollars

they put us on just a payment plan with no interest and so we're paying for that uh monthly and what that ended up doing

was pretty much making me Break Even every month so that was about 140 a month is that paid off no uh no that's

still how long is that yeah I think it's like a 10 years I think

okay but and so it comes with like a protection plan they come and change the filters they do the maintenance on it

they do everything if anything goes wrong with the AC over that amount of time yeah they fix it like there won't

be another diamond yeah so that was a no interest yes payment plan yeah it was

pretty awesome and part of a Service Experts so like they the reason that I like the plan so much rather than just

going on like zero percent interest to pay for the thing uh this ended up being like 20

bucks extra a month but now when I'm renting out the house because by this point we had kind of thought about you

know what will I do when I move out yeah but also um I like to go home a lot and so if I

wasn't home but something happened to it or whatever I wanted it to be you know

and so with this they've got like a 24 to 48 hour guarantee that it's going to

be taken care of and fixed with any issues that happen within those 10 years right and so that gave me the peace of

mind to know like hey now that I've got new people living there and I'm going to be a pilot training whatever they don't

call me they call the Service Experts I have the number on the fridge for them and you know they can take care of all

that and they're not paying for anything either and I can just be let know like hey we called them out because this

happened but it's already taken care of it good rather than call me I gotta call a handyman and Etc and you're still

paying the principal down on that So eventually you pay it off so you're paying the principle and when you go to

sell you either just pay them the remaining balance or the other people can take

over the contract now they're AC is taken care of yeah exactly yeah you know

if you if we were to sell the house yeah great yeah that's awesome so yeah uh so

now you've got your house it was already it was move-in ready yep essentially yeah um you've got

a brand new AC and you've got a monthly plan on that but you're breaking even you've got

you've got zero living costs as far as shelter yeah for the last three years zero living costs as far as utilities

um you you've got you've you're paying you're buying your food at this point

um so you know you move from 1100 a month payment in the dorm

uh you know you know factoring in a nine month year or something uh to zero

dollars Plus your food yeah yeah so it it sounds

great um yeah so you the the AC

you know it was obviously one part of the house maintenance that you learned did you have any other setbacks or yeah

yeah um so the um the plumbing something

happened for some reason to where under the ground where the Plumbing's coming out of the house it cracked and so that

was yeah okay there was a route that grew through the pipe or whatever and so that was cracked and broken and so that

the pipe under your house or was it was out in the yard okay and so it had already it was already feeding out and

down and like almost in the neighbor's yard feeding into the main sewage line it was probably only like 10 feet from

the main sewage line where that happened and um but almost what are the city is responsibility yeah I know right I think

it was only like a couple feet from City's responsibility but then like 10 to the main sewage line but um yeah so

that happened but the way that the reason that we noticed it is like like sediment and like

stuff from the sewage started coming up like into the bathtubs and so that would just be like sitting there and then like

stuff would come up through the sewage lines and then stuff wasn't draining right and everything and I'm just like

he's terrible like this is rough so called him um we started figuring out I was just

like man I guess we got to get somebody out there yeah so we called somebody that came and checked on it and they

fixed it at first and then it happened again or whatever so they just kind of snaked it yeah they snaked it yeah but

then um I guess he did say I think because he did that snake and it like destroyed a

snake yeah so he said there's something in there this works for now but if it comes back up like it's going to

continue to be a problem yeah so then a few weeks later it happens again it says

like well let's see what it takes to actually fix it and I didn't think that ended up

three thousand it was two a little over like in between two and three yeah somewhere around there okay so it cost

that and then and that's a that's a thing to think about uh as a parent

to be able to help him out obviously he doesn't have that kind of money set in there but it needed to get done yeah so

then we we paid that part and then he was able to pay us back over time yeah okay yeah so with that that was also

just part of the blessing was that they're able to have the cash on hand to you know get that fixed because it's not

so much of you know oh I can deal with it for a little bit uh like I've got other people that are counting on me and

they've you know I've told them that they've got a place to live and that it's going to be livable you know and so

that it has to be taken care of and so thankfully they had that and then I was able to pay them back um so part of like

paying for my food and stuff the Air Force did give me a stipend monthly for being on scholarship and so I do like

that was paying for my food and everything um but yeah so then that was one of the

big things but that's also part of what gives me the peace of mind going into renting out with me not being there is a

lot of that preventative maintenance and necessary stuff that you know you could end up running into already been taken

care of I had to one of my roommates broke the microwave had to get a new one of those another one broke the stove so

I had to get a new one of those but those things are now they're taken care of they're brand new they're great

appliances that these people can count on yeah the fridge is new we bought that as well and so and even if things do go

you know there's always gonna be a possibility for something to happen yeah go wrong

um but just you being there for the first three years having that experience as a homeowner yeah uh living there yeah

I think you know gives you a lot of confidence and ability yes to to handle those situations even now that you're

going to be removed from that from that place and yep yeah no definitely yes I

mean we got it's just unexpected things that happen I think that I've gone through quite a few of them with that

house to just help me understand um we got hit by a tornado back in February

um and so dealing with insurance still currently dealing with insurance and that all finalized and make sure that

everything's done the right way and taken care of yeah we're home when that happened yeah yeah it was pretty intense

yeah um and you've gotta you've got a storm you know you're in Oklahoma yeah but

you've got a storm shelter in the garage right so yeah just a quick like sidebar to tell the story of that we were

hanging out um me and my brother my two roommates were home and then uh my now fiance then

girlfriend were hanging out at the house and um you know storm started rolling in but it's it's Oklahoma you know tornado

sirens go off every other week and it's just like you know okay like cool we'll

keep an eye on it we'll see but probably not right and um so gotten way too

comfortable with them to be honest and uh you know go outside and check out the sky and whatever and um we were out

there I was on face time with him I was like man what do you think like you think we're good whatever like but I do

remember now like looking back at it like this is different than anything that I've ever

seen before because like it was Pitch Black outside but um it was Pitch Black outside but it was constant lightning

like just over and over and over and over and over like to where you could see bright as day even though it's the middle of the night it was weird and so

like now seeing that it was like that kind of anomaly I was like I probably should have been a little bit more alarmed but you don't know until like

you've experienced it and so even he was like no you're like y'all should be fine we'll keep an eye on it just to be safe

go you know open up the storm shelter and start to clear it out it's like all right whatever had Layla and Mason and

uh one of my other roommates Nico stay inside the house with Delta my dog and they were hanging out in there uh just

in the living room you know and um me and my buddy my other roommate Alonso

went into the garage to open it up we opened it up there was some leaves in there or whatever I just grabbed the

leaf blower I was about to start blowing it out and then all of a sudden it just sounded like it sounded like like really

heavy rain right uh yeah now it was debris hitting in the house and uh golly

like it's coming down yeah right I'm on the phone with him and then all of a

sudden I just hear Boom on my garage yeah um I think one of them was the tree had

fallen down um it hit my girlfriend's car and my roommate's car and then also the wind

the pressure from the tornado going over us was so uh great that it was pushing

our garage door in and so that was part of the garage doors bending and buckling boom and then it did it I was like dang

what the heck like didn't know if we're pale I don't know I was a little bit naive at that point just didn't know

yeah I was on the phone he was like I think my garage door's about to blow in

and just like hey what do you think and then it it hit like that and so after it

hit that's when I knew like okay we need to get out of here like we don't need to be in this garage that's for sure even

though the storm shelter is right here like everybody else is in there my responsibility is to take care of them

and so after that second one I had already started moving yeah but then I look and my roommate's just completely

Frozen you didn't know what to do he just stuck and he was just like like this and so I was like dude you gotta go

grabbed him and like running inside with him and as we're running inside we've got like an attic entrance or whatever

it's just like a piece of plywood in the laundry room the pressure had broken out

some of the side paneling from my roof or whatever and gotten into the attic and so that it blew that out down on top

of us so I'm running in with him like this and that comes down smacks me on the back I'm like what the heck is that

I don't know what it is but I want to get out kept running slammed the doors I was like everybody get in the bathroom

now um so got everybody in there we just huddled down put stuff on top of us and just waited it out for a little bit and

still really didn't know that it was an actual tornado or like maybe like wind

got really bad or whatever but like you don't expect or think that like oh a

tornado just touched down yeah you know what I mean how long are you in the bathroom we were only in there for about

like five to ten minutes it happens really quick yeah we were just hanging out in there and it like it was instant

and then boom it was just gone yeah no more noise no more anything uh we come back out of the bathroom there's insulation all over the house whatever

because they're blown out from the roof through that hole so you're just grabbing your friend because he doesn't know what to do no because he's stuck

staying still yeah which probably not the greatest idea but yeah yeah so I ran in with him did we get outside oh we get

out of the thing and I'm like I'm gonna go check outside because that sounded pretty rough um assuming you know maybe

cars like a little bit of hail or something like that that's what I thought maybe hail and wind and yeah but

nothing crazy um yeah so then me and my brother go

outside uh with flashlights or whatever because it's still pitch black and that was one of the craziest things that

I've ever seen because so the entire Street was pink with insulation um so like all the houses got so yeah

every so the tornado touched down on our street like in the cold attack that we live in and just blew through and so my

neighbors as I'm looking no roofs like windows busted out um like tire back halves of houses are

gone um and then we start moving down the street and there was a house that had pretty much completely fallen over wow

um it's crazy most people didn't have garage doors anymore the tornado can come through like this yeah and so that's just another

Testament to how God does things because none of us were ready because we walked through some of the other houses like

literally two houses down and they're just shredded the entire inside of them like the living rooms exactly where you

know my brother my girlfriend and everybody else was standing right um

no not at all right and especially with with us being in the garage most people's garages were just gone like

they weren't there anymore and so to think about the fact that it did hop over ours because our neighbor here

their entire roof was gone and the back half of their house was Torn to Pieces yeah and then the other

one on the other side of me their their roof was gone and the garage was completely blown in and they didn't like

everything in the garage so now so now you're dealing with insurance you're still getting in that process but yeah

home during the day so this is the middle of the night it hit about 10 p.m

and so most people were home and so that's the crazy part about it is like this stuff is completely destroyed but

there were no injuries um I think there was 12 minor injuries like scrapes and bruises and most of them happened after

the tornado of people trying to get out get out or um other people out and stuff like that

but it was really really neat to kind of see the community come together though because me my brother my roommates were out there with flashlights and we

knocked on every single door got to thankfully see everybody walk out of their homes um fire department gets there and you

know we were out there were young guys and they're like hey you mind helping us out like there's this old lady in this house whatever there's so many guys

spread out like we need we need some help getting her out and so we were able but that was like like the granite

countertops um were on the ground broken in half like that's just this year before so you know what happened so to

see that and it was wild because like these people had been there since the house was built in O2 and so over 20

years that they've been in this house and all their memories are in there with them and so stepping over you know family pictures and DVDs and everything

that they've accrued over 20 something years in this house was really like it was really sobering and just like wow

like God is good though because they they were in their bedroom they didn't have a swim shelter they're in their

bedroom and the entire house fell down around them like everything they were stepping over like so when we walk in

this side of the house had completely buckled like like this and so it was

leaning and you could just see straight outside to the street yeah um and then the whole back half of their

house like where their back door and everything had legitimately just Fallen yeah like just the whole framing of it

just boom and um then inside the glass had come through and all the debris the

walls all the paint is completely shredded it looked like somebody came through and shot up the house because there's holes in all the walls and just

all the paints ripped off the walls their couches flipped over over by where their TV is and like their TV has a

story and stuff it was yeah it was just wild but then we walked into their room it was completely untouched yeah and that's where they were hanging out and

that's where you know they stayed and we were able to help her get out and but yeah it was definitely wild but yeah

moving into dealing with insurance and stuff I was talking to some of my neighbors as they were dealing with them they're like man I'm 56 years old and

I've never had to deal with insurance on a home claim you know what I mean so they were even in that they were like

communicating with me how blessed I am to be able to one nobody was hurt anything like that but then get this

type of experience at this age to understand how these types of things work yeah um because moving forward

investing in real estate things like that may or may not happen but if they do now I'm prepared yeah that's great

yeah yep so your house you've got you yeah just and I guess moving into now

that you're graduated thoughts on on how you'll be using your home now and you

kind of kind of already alluded to you're going to continue renting that home out for for their foreseeable

future note no plans to sell at this point or it's tempting honestly to sell

because with Oklahoma and that's what we can speak to the numbers a little bit

there first is is you know you bought the house for 172. you know you've got uh a loan for the AC at about 10 000 ish

yeah it's it's probably a little less in there now yeah okay and then and then you put it and you put three thousand

dollars in for the plumbing so you're you're sitting around 170 uh

180 190 185 about 185 is what you you

know not not including interest in whatever yeah but you haven't paid any of that interest to yourself haven't paid any of the interest haven't paid

any of the money down so I think the loan is sitting low 160s right now like 161 yeah

um but you know with covid and everything and the real estate boom um obviously here in Texas we've

experienced it went way way and inflated and then it kind of started to settle down a little bit but um not too bad but

Oklahoma um didn't really ever inflate like crazy it went up

um a decent bit but it stayed yeah so it's still the same it's still steady yeah um and so my house right now

um what would you say probably between 2 30 2 40ish yeah yeah I left 235 yeah I

looked on Zillow you know you got to take Zola yeah but it's like 240. yeah 240 yeah 240

something and so that's the thing too is we're we're going through the process of uh remodeling some stuff putting new

floorings and everything and then obviously it's got the new Air Conditioning new Plumbing new stove a

lot of you know really things that have kind of modernized it and helped make it stand out as compared to the other

houses that are surrounding it because even some of the houses next door that are the same models they don't mine is

painted more mod it's painted gray and the interiors that are kept up and yeah you know stuff like that and so

marketability is yeah so not not even not even thinking about what you can get cash flow on the property now you've got

you've got about 70 000 of equity if you sold the property yeah so 70 to 80 grand

in equity in the house right now uh if I yeah and so that is tempting you know to

be able to come out of college walk away and have you know this lump of cash instead of whatever a hundred thousand

dollars of student loans yeah exactly yeah you not only got you I mean obviously not everybody's gonna go into

the military but there are different ways and a lot of people can you know after hearing the story yeah you know

it's just it's an it's an option that maybe some people don't think about getting their school paid for in that way yeah then yeah sorry that is

something that I do want to highlight is especially with the Air Force is we have the our branch has the largest selection

of civilian jobs that are in the military we have everything from you know finances to accountants to just

straight up like business workers yeah um and so like every people gotta handle the way that we got paid that we get

paid um mechanics engineers and so we have the largest selection of you know non-combat military yeah um and so like

my buddies that are going in as engineers and so they they typically are they committed to a four-year yeah

that's a service stint after graduating exactly so it's four years for four years and you know mine's a little bit different I'm going to fly they're

putting a little over two million dollars in training into me and so they want to keep me around for 10 years but

that's what I want to do my whole life so it's not really right you know that's a decision for me yeah I'd be there if

the commitment was five years um but the cool thing you know when I was talking to my buddy that decided to

come and you know try out the program you want to be an engineer and so that's what a lot of my friends are doing is

being Engineers we've got everything from civil engineers that design and make the bases make the runways

um to you know mechanical engineers and aerospace engineers to help design the Jets um

but the cool thing with that is that when you go in you are immediately

working on projects and you were a project team lead as a second Lieutenant because you're an officer and you've got

a team of enlisted engineer workers that are working under you yeah um versus

when you go into the civilian World straight out of you know out of college you are one of the people that's just

working on a team it takes you typically from what my friends have talked to me about eight to ten years to be able to

be even Project Lead to get that experience exactly and so for those types of people it's an amazing

opportunity because they have they can come in and after four years they've got the same experience as somebody with 10

to 12 years 15 years and they get to start their career in the civilian world at 25 or 26 as a Project Lead because

even if they're getting paid a little bit less while they're at the four years they're in the military they're going to come out of the military at an

accelerated accelerated position and that's of things it's it's only a little bit less when you factor in the

different benefits that you're getting as well because you didn't pay for your school right um you get your housing and

your uh you get even uh stipends for food and things like that every month being an officer it's you're very well

taken care of and so then coming out if you were to go straight into the civilian world and continue using

engineer as an example what you're getting paid um it almost evens out especially being

a junior engineer yeah and so these guys they get to go to whatever engineering

firm they want to and they especially have an easy shoe-in to play to defense contractors like Raytheon Lockheed

Martin and they can say I've Been Working On The B-52s or they have 35s for the last four years as a Project Lead this is what I did for this

specific base or whatever they've probably already been working with those contractors before exactly and so that's

they they get set up for those types of things and so even if you never looked at it before I think that it's something

worth at least um you know research because it's not for everybody it's not something that everybody can do or even should do but

it is a great way to give back but also just set yourself up for Financial Freedom in the future as well to take

care of yourself earlier yeah and so let's yeah go back going back just real quickly to uh your plans for the house

in the future you've got you've got now four tenants moving in you'll be a remote landlord what's kind of your what

will be your cash flow now are you still renting the rooms at 550 or it has it hasn't increased so the way that we were

doing it beforehand was the 550 was utilities and everything included they

just paid that flat fee and if the utilities were higher that month and they ended up encroaching over that 1650

then I paid those and then if they were lower then I made a little bit on top and I ended up pretty much evening out throughout the year

um now what I'm doing is 500 a month plus utilities so they are going to play pay their own utilities because I'm not

living there anymore I don't get any say so I don't get to a like turn off the lights at night stuff like that I don't

get to you know do any of that stuff to kind of control what the utilities end up looking like so so you're you're

monthly payment with your AC so it's working out to be about 1300 a month so

now taxes uh taxes have gone up yeah and it's 12.86 a month now just for the

mortgage plus your AC plus my AC which I think is about 130 so you can say closer

to one uh to 1500. um 1286 yep plus one one to two one Thirty

One forty-ish yeah so yeah yeah so 14 14 something yeah 14

something and you're and you're bringing in two thousand bringing in two thousand dollars yeah it's about 550 yeah

on an eight thousand dollar initial down payments house yeah yeah so I mean when

you when you factor when you do the math there that's like about it's it's over six thousand a year so even if it was

six thousand dollars a year on a eight thousand dollar payment that's getting close to like 80 return investment on

your yeah on your money so that's pretty nice not including any of your appreciation so it just it

gets astronomical and so that's that's what I was talking about earlier is it is tempting to have that type of you

know just cash to you know go maybe buy another home or do whatever with you know and um but looking at it to be

physically responsible and set myself up for the future um this house doesn't make sense to sell

because we've got a 3.25 interest rate on it and that just doesn't exist right now yeah um and so to take that out and

try to invest into another homework yeah almost set guaranteeing that we lose money on that and so

um and just for the distinct opportunity of the fact that I still know people that are going to the university yeah

and so these people that are moving in are still some of my friends are just younger and they've got two more years

at the University and plan on living there for the next two years and so that's money that I can count on that two grand a month for the next two years

yeah um at least yeah and you're and you're still providing them a place a great place to stay for a lot cheaper than

they would pay anywhere else as well and they you know with them it's my only house so a lot of landlords you know

they'll say no holes in the walls stuff like that and that makes sense when you've got 500 600 units you know you're

dealing with Apartments and Townhomes and things like that for me I've got the one so you know I'm able to give them a

lot of freedom like hey like if you want to hang something up in your room or you want to repaint your room go for it like

I'm gonna let y'all do what y'all want to do because you don't know I got to enjoy my college experience in that way I think that it's cool that if I'm able

to give you all that opportunity y'all get to do that as well and y'all are helping me out a lot so you know being

able to do that for them is really neat and unique as well but then the cool thing is moving into the future if I do

move out of renting to college students my house is only about 20 minutes from the nearest Air Force Base okay

um and so one of my lieutenant Colonels I was an instructor during my years at the

University of Oklahoma he talked to me about what he does with his house because he's got he's got about 10 homes

and he said that he loves to rent to people that are also in the military because you have that automatic checks

and balances of if they try to default on their payment well hey I know your commander not really going to do that

type of stuff just and it's kind of that that trust Network you know you know people and they're like-minded people and so you really don't end up having to

deal with a lot of those issues and stuff like that but there's also the you know the extra step of security and

knowing that hey this stuff is going to be paid for it's going to be taken care of and so that is also just kind of

looking further out into the future of possibilities yeah so that's great and so I'll take it back to Luis real

quickly and just as a co-signer you know as if if there are other parents out there thinking about uh helping their

their their young adult children in this way um what are some what are what are some

of the I mean obviously we've seen a lot of the the benefits of you being able to co-sign for for Jake on this this home

what are some of the drawbacks or some some of the just uh any kind of

difficulties that you've seen as as a cosigner on on a on a home that you

it's not I mean obviously it's benefiting you in the way that it's it's helping you your son and you want it and

you want to to give your kid that leg up but what are some ways that it it's you

know just as person as a personal situation is maybe set you back or has it

um no I hadn't really seen negatives um I guess everybody's situation is a

little bit different as far as your credit and your ability to extend yourself for what you need but like for

us we just bought a new home before we bought this one so probably six months

eight months before we had bought our new home so we weren't planning on moving anywhere else yeah

um and we had the room in our debt to income ratio to be able to qualify to

co-sign on this and it's not hindering us from doing anything else that we that we'd

like to do we hadn't overextended ourselves in that way yeah um and then you know with Jake he's been

able to take care of the house take care of whatever comes up and has been responsible with it and you know just

kind of walking that road with him obviously always there for hey what do you think about this what do you think about that offering advice

but he takes care of that home I guess the only other thing is you know

if some you know big expense like the plumbing came up you know we stepped in to be able to help and then slowly got

paid back yeah so just being aware that there may be issues that arise yeah kind

of yep having a plan and yeah having a plan in place to be able to help them through that but that's as a college

student so now he's he's starting his career and he's going to have you know his own income and everything like that

so now that is off of our plate and so something that you know I hadn't

obviously I don't want to refinance right now we'd lose money for sure yeah but yeah and you're talking about

refinancing as far as getting your getting your name off of them yes to be able to take my name off and to be

completely in his name and it's just his home yeah and then something that you mentioned to me that I want to look into

once he does start and now he's fully in the Air Force getting paid regular checks is to talk to the lender and see

if we can pull our name off as a co-signer yeah and then he shown the ability to pay consistent

payments over the last three years and now he has a job that's bringing in this x amount of dollars right so he can

afford to pay for it on his own and obviously that that that just generally has to come out of the lenders

goodness of their own hearts and I mean there's not a lot of uh uh reasoning why they would want and

let's just let you off the mortgage because obviously more people on there is more of a guarantee of them getting paid

um but it is a possibility especially I think um maybe for some you know as a person

going an officer going into the military with that kind of guaranteed income it

may be something that that would work out yeah so I was thinking about looking at but I also with him having contracts and it being

rented out if we were to go you know if we wanted to purchase something else and they see

the debt to income we can show this this is bringing in so that's a wash you know

that's so it's just like anybody's not going out to get a another investment

property yeah yeah it's an investment property it's being paid for it's actually making money yeah it's yeah so

in that sense I don't feel like it'll hinder Us in anything because it the only other thing we've thought about is

to be able to help my younger son to do the same thing so if we can show that this is an investment property it's

covered in itself and now we still have the debt to income ratio to be able to do that then we can

uh maybe be able to help him in the same way well that's great we have uh now gone

our conversation slices over two hours so I mean I have enjoyed it and of course I I mean I've had an idea that it

would go along just um being able to sit down with you guys and having the history that we do and um so I thank you guys so much for being

here um I think it you know as for folks that can that can hear your

story I think there are a lot of possibilities for people that may not already see those uh have are have

already seen that that possibility as far as you know it's it's just in the mindset of so many of our

youth in our country that I go to college I get loans for college I come

out with hundred thousand dollars of debt that's what everybody's doing so that's what I have to do

um so to to see someone do it differently uh into set even through the

trials and the setbacks of of your home ownership experience um to come out

zero student debt um seventy thousand dollars

eighty thousand dollars of home equity um an investment property that you're

now cash flowing um up to six thousand seven thousand dollars a year

uh it's yeah I think I I hope and that it is an encouragement to others to to

think about their finances differently so I really appreciate you guys taking the time to be here and and share your

story and I'm so thankful for the way that you guys uh together and your

family as a whole um not only um

you know we've talked about just this posture of surrender to what God is

directing you in but you do it in a way that uh

you're not you're not taking that credit on for yourself or for what you've done so so thank you for

um the way that you give God glory in in how he is he has blessed you um so I just want to read one

um before we end this anything else you guys want to add or no I just thanks for the opportunity uh

because you know we work in the same job as you know whatever you call it blue collar didn't

come from money anything like that so the opportunity is there of just fun and unique ways to do it so as we were

doing it we didn't really think through all that process of just kind of being led yeah but for you to see it bring it

out to other people and then now maybe Open the Eyes of others like hey I could do that same thing and set people up to

have a different viewpoint as opposed to just burying themselves in in debt like that I think that's a big

thing so I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to share absolutely absolutely thank you very much I did want to put in one last thing if you are

going to be renting to other roommates and something like that make sure that your contracts are solid talk to

somebody get some advice that is a mistake that I made and I ended up getting shorted a little bit of quite a

bit of money um because I didn't have my contract set up the right way so just make sure that you talk to the right people for me I

talk to my legal studies Professor for these upcoming contracts and he was able to uh set me up with somebody that does

contract law in the um real estate sector and so for that especially if you

are going to University there's a lot of great contacts that are there that you can get access to for free yeah and so I

didn't have to pay him anything that's right and it was awesome he sent me over exactly what I needed to do that's so huge especially when when you're living

in in the house and you're living with your friends yeah and you want to you want to just keep it friendly yeah

to just say from the beginning and because you know we we learned this in the fire department

um so much is is that you know when those expectations aren't clear and set things get messy really quickly exactly

and so it really and as a way to even guard those friendships yeah because you want to think about it that way to help

you be more uh explicit in your in your expectations and and get that

yeah I mean that's that's that's a huge thing because for me one of my buddies that he ended up having to move out so

that we could save our friendship because those things weren't discussed properly at the beginning and so uh just

make sure that those things are handled properly and that you talk to somebody that really knows what they're doing because it for me I just try to figure

it out on my own and I yeah did it um pretty well for the first time and then I slacked a little bit on the

second time just because I figured oh they were working peace livers and whatever and so it didn't have to be as

explicit and it came back to bite me and so just making sure that you take care of those due diligences even if they do

seem like they're redundant or um maybe a little bit unnecessary because they're your best friend and things happen living with people is just

absolutely that's good advice great before we leave

what's uh anything that you learn that you would like to point out or share with us what what's some what's

something that was really interesting to you that you think might you might be able to uh take going forward for as you

think about how you wanna set the room thing with all the

um the house

um they're I'm not saying this right but I think they know what I mean and

um that's just smart I think yeah so yeah you're just talking about the being

smart in in being able to rent rent yeah get it get a multi for you know they got a four bedroom got extra roommates

they're able to save money yeah instead of just still having a house yeah for helping others too exactly yeah

that's great I appreciate it yep that's awesome yeah I do want to read just this benediction

um really over you as you continue in what God is um uh giving you in your life um for

your future plans and then just as anybody is listening you know that we would be prepared well by what God has

yeah um for his for his work in our lives um it's uh Hebrews 13.

20. now may the God of Peace who brought again from the dead our lord

Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep by the blood of Eternal Covenant equip you

with everything good that you may do his will working in us

that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory

forever and ever amen that's the end of the show thanks guys yeah thank you

appreciate it as we bring this episode of real estate for the real good to a close we want to

extend our heartfelt gratitude to you our early listeners thank you for joining us on this journey and we hope

that today's discussion has left you both informed and encouraged if you have

any questions about today's episode please reach out you can get in touch with me through our Instagram account or

by email at nathancarston gmail.com I hope this episode has shown someone that

the traditional path of college and student loan debt is not the only option there are possibilities to set yourself

and your family up for financial success even from an early age and real estate

can be a great tool to help you get there we look forward to welcoming Kristen back to the podcast in our next

episode in which we'll have the privilege of learning from our friends Brad and Jenny nethery as I share how

they use their home in a unique way to become debt free if you enjoyed today's episode and found it valuable please

consider subscribing to our podcast and leaving a review your feedback is invaluable in helping us improve and

reach more individuals looking to make informed decisions in real estate you can also find us on our YouTube at

fortherealgood or on Instagram at real estate for the real good as we part ways

for now we pray that God would bless you and keep you and that his face would shine upon you as you seek to know him

more trust his will on your life and surrender to his loving and gentle care