“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate” -Andrew Carnegie

What’s up everybody, I know I know it’s been a while. Hope everyone has been as busy as me through. Currently, I’m in law school and building my real estate empire. While I’m finishing my first year in law school, I am simultaneously in the process of develop a 14 unit apartment building. I will do my best to be more consistent on here and keeping you updated. First I will say, it can’t hurt to have some friends working for the municipality where you plan to develop. Fortunately for me, I apprenticed under the Director of Economic Development where I plan to complete my first project. Following a meeting with him, I came up with the steps I need to take to be successful in my endeavor.

1. Land Survey
2. Site Plan
3. Architectural Plan
4. Structural Engineering Plan
5. Construction

Each step has a few sub steps that are required. Right now, I’m at step 1. I had to do some searching and several phone calls before I found the right company to complete the survey at the right price. The quotes I received were between $1300 – $5000. I decided to go with the firm which quoted $1700 overall because I liked the vibe I got from the person I spoke to, and felt like they understood what I was going to accomplish. The land survey will be complete by the end of this month and will be followed by a meeting with planning and zoning prior to starting the site plan. So, to be continued…. and as always…

FINANACIAL FREEDOM OR ELSE!!!

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

Scripture is subject to many interpretations. Although I haven’t been to church in years, I grew up in a Christian home. I have heard this bible verse many times growing up. Today what this verse says to me is that I should not create my own purpose or even search for it. I spent a lot of time trying to dictate how my I will end up at my destination. I know I want to be wealthy and financially free. I remember prior to college I wanted to become a doctor. I picked a role model and would try to basically try to follow in their footsteps. My favorite television show was House. I watched every single episode multiple times. I was amazed how he would solve the medical mystery illnesses no other doctor on earth was able to solve. I ended up going to Penn State University on a biology scholarship. Oh yea, looks like I left out one of my other dreams.

I forgot to mention prior to wanting to become a doctor I wanted to become one of the things most kids in my environment wanted to be. NBA player, NFL player, Rapper. I found out early that I probably wouldn’t be tall enough for basketball or tough enough to play football but I was always good with words. At 11 years old I attended a cousins sweet 16 party and when Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” came on I saw three girls take their shirt off when the songs reached to hook. I mean he wasn’t even in the room and these girls were doing what he said lol. After that I was torn one side of me wanted to be a rapper and the other side wanted to be a doctor.

My freshman year at Penn State was a fucking disaster, I felt like I was at a crossroads and decided to make a choice. I chose Hip Hop. I could not focus in any class, heck I barely even attended any. End of year GPA….1.1. I lost my academic scholarship and decided to drop out and pursue a Rap career full time. Long story short, didn’t work out as planned.

I ended up going back to school to pursue the original reason I went in the first place. I re-enrolled as pre-med for a second time but I just was not feeling it. Couldn’t really see myself being a doctor so I just started trying any and every major. When I got to legal studies my advisor informed me that I could no longer switch majors. By default I was forced to stick with legal. Still, I couldn’t see myself doing it but hey, I needed a degree and I had come that far. I didn’t feel like I had any motivation to study and take the Law School Entrance Exam (LSAT). I mean I studied but not hard enough, I knew I didn’t give it my all. My score reflected that lack of motivation and effort. I would even be able to get into a non-accredited law school with the score I had. Following graduation I used my Legal Studies degree to land a job as a paralegal at the law firm I interned for my senior year. I quit after about 3 years, why? The truth is, I saw a picture of my self as an old man sitting in that office using one of those snapchat or facebook filters and it scared the shit out of me. That was not the future I had in mind. I put in my two weeks notice a few days later.

Much of what happened after that could be found in one of my earlier post. The last time I posted I had just gotten my real estate license, which today I realized may not be my path. Currently, I am preparing to attend law school. During the covid-19 pandemic, my current job sent us to work from home and I was able to find time to study for the LSAT one more time. I mean why not? Since it seems my life is in legal why not be an attorney instead of a just a paralegal. Nothing wrong with being a paralegal, its just that I hate having to depend on someone else’s career to give mine purpose. As a paralegal I depend on an attorney so that I could have a job. Where to after I pass the bar? Who knows. All I do know is that as an attorney I can provide even more value to my community as a black Haitian American. Maybe that’s what God wants. At the end of the day though, its still

FINANCIAL FREEDOM OR ELSE!

“You never change your life until you step out of your comfort zone; change begins at the end of your comfort zone.” ― Roy T. Bennett

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I know I know, I’ve been long overdue for an update with you all. Please excuse my hiatus, I’ve been working overtime. Quick update, since my last post I managed to repair my first property and get it rented. I am managing the property with no financing and a really high NOI. Net Operating Income (NOI) is calculated by subtracting your operating expenses from your gross income.

Gross Income – Operating Expenses = Net Operating Income

The next step in the process for me is to use the profits from this first tenant to complete the lower section of the property. Since the utilities are split I can rent the property as a duplex. I am also able to save on taxes because the property is listed with the city as a single family home. Furthermore, the property sits on commercial land which is valuable by itself. But I must admit what I would much rather own is a commercial property like an apartment complex.

1-4 unit properties are usually considered residential properties. Any residential properties with 5+ units are considered commercial. I make this distinction because it is important when it comes to pricing the property when you are ready to sell. With residential properties, property values are calculated by comparing your property to similar properties that have recently sold in your area. With commercial properties, the price is more so determined by the amount of profit you can pull out of the property. I am over simplifying the process of course, I suggest watching some videos on real estate math for a more in depth explanation. Essentially the price of an apartment complex would be determined dividing the NOI by the Capitalization Rate (Cap Rate).

Price = NOI / Cap Rate

If you are able to raise the NOI by making some adjustments in areas like rent, maintenance, or by any other legal means you can raise the value of your property. Provided the local cap rate stays the same, External forces like new public developments can also aid in raising the value of your property.

To keep up with any updates on the projects Im working on follow my Instagram page:

IG: @salem.desir

And Still…..

FINANACIAL FREEDOM OR ELSE!!!

“I’m the best Real Estate Investor on the planet” – Salem Desir

Long time no speak! It’s been about 2 or more years since I last wrote anything here. Here’s an update:

I recently started a new position Sr. Legal Administrative Assistant at a Fortune 500 company starting October 2018. More recently, I have acquired my real estate license in the state of Georgia. My current plan is to flip 6-18 properties in the next 2-3 years then acquire my broker license on the third year. As a broker I will focus on syndications in multi family properties and forming a REIT.

Preparing for the real estate exam was easy. I took an online course with Barney Fletcher Located in Atlanta, Cobb County I believe. I started the course October 10, 2019 and completed the course exam December 6, 2019. Georgia requires 75 course hours at a GREC qualified school. After the course, the next available date for the state exam was January 22, 2020 which happened to fall on a Wednesday and I wasn’t able to get my license until that Saturday. The GREC location wasn’t usually open on Saturday but the woman working there made an exception for me because when I came in on Wednesday it was after 12pm and I didn’t finish my exam until 1pm. I actually finished the exam at 12pm but spent the last hour going through all of my answers one last time. I didn’t plan on taking that exam more than once.

I initially activated my license that Saturday with a brokerage that I found online that was offering a plan that gave agents a 100% commission split. I quickly found out it wouldn’t be that simple. Since I was a new agent that hadn’t done any deals yet I was required to take a deal that offered 70/30 commission split until I had closed on 3 deals. When it came time to sign the documents forming my relationship as a salesperson with the brokerage, the broker sent me faded pages. All faded pages, which I gave the benefit of the doubt as just an oversight. When I requested he resend the documents this time the documents came through slightly less faded and now crooked. Nonetheless, I still signed all of them and initially became a salesperson at that brokerage. A few days later, I reached out to a family friend who is also an agent who suggested I reach out to his broker at Coald Realty and here I am. In a much better position with much more support and guidance.

With goals and perseverance, I would reach the destination that I visualized. My biggest lesson of the last decade was that I needed to take complete control of my thoughts.

And still……

FINANCIAL FREEDOM OR ELSE!!!

 

 

“A goal properly set is halfway reached.” —Zig Ziglar

Tackle Tuesdays
The second day of the week, Tuesday derives its name from Týr the god of single combat. So every Tuesday we should tackle something that is weighing down our financial elevation.

According to Tom Corley’s Rich Habits “Every year, 70 percent of the wealthy pursue at least one major goal. Only 3 percent of those struggling to make ends meet do this.” One of my aspirations is to build the Muzyma community to 100,000 followers in the next two years. In a small step towards that direction, this week I launched my Alexa Flash Briefing skill that anyone with an echo device can add. If you own an echo device please look into adding the Muzyma Alexa skill to your Flash Briefings so that you can stay updated on the daily topics Muzyma discovers that can aid in our financial freedom.

What are you going to tackle today?

LET’S BUILD OUR FINANCIAL LITERACY ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!

“Stop worrying about missed opportunities and start looking for new ones.” ― I.M. Pei

MONEY MONDAY’S

The biggest opportunity I see for investment right now is in Bitcoin. In the year 2009 one bitcoin was about $0.16. This morning one bitcoin would cost you roughly $7,200.00. The price has skyrocketed and is showing no signs of slowing down.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is an international cryptocurrency and digital payment system. There is no central banking system that regulates this system. The design of the cryptocurrency system is known as Blockchain. Blockchain is a public ledger that keeps track of all bitcoin transactions.Afraid of getting hacked? It would cost someone 10x more to hack bitcoin than to just mine them legally, and with that said, Bitcoin has NEVER been hacked not even once since its debut almost ten years ago. More advantages of the blockchain system are explained HERE.
It is opinion that cryptocurrencies is the future of money on the planet. The older generations do not understand the concept of these cryptocurrencies and won’t invest for the most part. Although I am not an expert on investing and even created this blog so that we can educate ourselves together, I do believe bitcoin is the biggest opportunity for our generation. A chance to join the one percent.
Click here, I think this is a great place to start your education on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Let me know what you find!!

LET’S BUILD OUR FINANCIAL LITERACY ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!

“Five Ups of life: Buckle up, Start up, Keep it up, Don’t give up, Cheer up.” ―ikrmn, Corpkshetra

 

WEDNESDAY WINNER

According to Yahoo Finance, the biggest gainer on the stock market today was B&G Foods, Inc. (BGS). At the closing bell, BGS was up over 12%. BGS’s annual report shows that the company has increased its net income by +100% from 2015-2016. But the reason B&G Foods, Inc. had such a great day was probably due to the quarterly revenue jumping 28.3% every year. This translated to a .1% drop in adjusted net income to $36.8 million. Adjusted net income per diluted shares dropped $0.55, a 1.8% drop. Analysts were expecting an even lower drop to $0.47 per diluted share. Since the loss was much less than analyst expected, this translated to a higher valuation for investors who rushed in for the opportunity to buy something that seems to be undervalued.

Valuation is something that I am going to continue to work on. Currently, the main source I am using for valuation is Valuation by McKinsey and Company.

LET’S BUILD OUR FINANCIAL LITERACY ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!

“The best cure for one’s bad tendencies is to see them in action in another person.” ― Alain de Botton

TACKLE TUESDAYS

The second day of the week, Tuesday derives its name from Týr the god of single combat. So every Tuesday we should tackle something that is weighing down our financial elevation.

According to Tom Corley’s Rich Habits, 88 percent of wealthy people read for half an hour or more a day. Over 60% listen to audiobooks during their commute, 79% read to help them in their careers, 55% read for personal development, and 58% read biographies of successful people.

Today I am going to trade in an hour of television for an hour of reading. The book I will be reading is an Elon Musk biography written by Ashlee Vance. I have been reading this book for a couple of days now and it’s quite insightful into the mind of a highly driven and focused individual.

What are you going to tackle today?

LET’S BUILD OUR FINANCIAL LITERACY ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!

“Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life.” -Emma Stone

 

MONEY MONDAYS

In order to generate the type of wealth that millionaires do it is important to generate multiple sources of income. Last night I took a step in that direction by partnering with Arise with my customer assistance company, Desir Customer Assistance, LLC.

The Arise platform allows for virtual customer service companies to partner with them, and get contract offers with large corporations. You know when you call Amazon customer service and someone helps you with your issue? Well, you will be that person. This is not an employment opportunity from Arise, it is a business opportunity. You will not be working for Arise, instead, you simply use their platform to perform customer service

The first thing I had to do was incorporate so that I could partner my company with Arise. Should you choose not to incorporate, you may elect to become an agent of someone else’s company (Why not mine? Desir Customer Assistance, LLC), or you can research others.

The next thing you have to do is take a pc scan. Usually, your average laptop should work as long as it’s Windows 8 or higher and, has several other features. They may even accept Windows 7 but I wouldn’t recommend it as it will probably run too slow. After you pass this exam you will need to take a voice assessment which I used my home phone for. It is required that I get a separate business phone line, which is what I will do in the coming week. The next thing that you will have to do is pay for a background check, which shouldn’t be more than $10 in most areas. Then I registered my IB or independent business or company, they all mean the same thing. I bring it up here because you’ll see them used interchangeably on their sight.

It took about two weeks for my LLC to be processed and registered in the state of Georgia, the PC scan took less than a couple minutes, voice assessment and background check took less than an hour.

Here’s how to register an LLC. There are fees involved with registering your LLC which vary by state. Find the link to your state through the preceding link that I provided.

You will have to purchase:

• Telephone Keypad & VOIP/Gaming Headset ~$35-100
• Phone Line ~$75
• Initial Client Program Certification Course ~$50-250

After you’re done with the initial registration you must choose a client to train and get certified for. Do to disclosure agreements I’m not sure I’m at liberty to name drop, but there are opportunities to land fortune 500 companies as clients.

Here is more info on Arise here.

LET’S BUILD OUR FINANCIAL LITERACY ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” ― Robertson Davies

SUNDAY’S NEWS:

AMEX Says Goodbye to Kenneth Chenault

The last decade may have been the tail end of American Express’s hold on the niche of earning transaction fees. The last 16 years have been quite profitable for Amex while being headed by chief executive Kenneth Chenault, as credit-card usage has surged in the last decade.

Even with such growth, American Express is not doing so well in the rapidly evolving payments industry. Over 40 years ago, the amount of money for purchases channeled through AmEx was equal to 50% of what went through MasterCard and 70% of what went through Visa. In 2016 the ratio dropped to 30% and 14% respectively. MasterCard’s market capitalization is now two times that of American Express’s and Visa’s is three times as big.

PayPal is also gunning for AmEx because although they only have a tiny fraction of AmEx’s revenues and profits, they have surpassed them in market value. PayPal does not use cards, rather they give their customers a platform on their smartphones or computers tied to their bank accounts or MasterCard, Visa, or American Express. PayPal collects a fee for each payment processed. PayPal also offers Venmo (primarily for payments between individuals) and BrainTree (used by Uber, AirBnB, and Xoom).

The big banks are now targeting the customers that were well-off enough to be willing to pay for American Express transaction fees. They have also taken advantages of some of the co-branding deals that AmEx used to easily acquire which carried exclusive rewards for customers. For instance, they lost one of these types of deals with Costco to Citigroup. Costco accounted for 10% of its transaction volume. To counter these types of losses, AmEx has taken on bank-like characteristics and is lending more. Nomura/Instinet, a brokerage, predicts that interest income should bring in 28% of revenues for American Express.

Although the business has changed American Express may very well be here for the long hall. In my opinion, we are all probably going to switch over to some form of cryptocurrency in the future and make most of these financial institutions obsolete. But hey, I could be wrong.

LET’S BUILD OUR FINANCIAL LITERACY ONE STEP AT A TIME!!!!

(The Economist)