Rey Rey Properties - How Did We Get Here?

As we embark in the new year, Carrie and I couldn't be more excited about our real estate company. It is evolving and becoming a "go to" for real estate investors, prospective tenants, and many others involved in real estate. And to think, we really just got our start in real estate less than a year ago!

It all started because of my never ending desire to create new businesses and new streams of income for our family. I remember telling Carrie that I really wanted us to look at real estate investing as a business opportunity we could pursue together. She tilted her head, smirked, and said something like...."don't even start with me." Basically she was saying, "Oh no, another one of Corey's crazy business ideas..." 

I have always been entrepreneurial. In fact, I can remember back in middle school when my parents brought home our first computer! That computer could hook up to the "world wide web" and, although it was incredibly slow compared to our computers now, we were online for the first time at home!

One of the first websites I found was this awesome website called Napster (I am sure many of you in my generation remember this site well). You could go to this website, type in any song you wanted, and BOOM! You could download the song to your computer! 

This fancy computer also happened to be fully loaded with a CD burner. A lot of kids at my school loved music but back then, in order to get CD's with your favorite songs, you had to buy that band's entire CD. The entire CD included many songs that you could have cared less about and only one or two that you truly loved. CD's at the time were around $10-$15 each so kids my age weren't able to afford them and were forced to listen to the radio. When we got that fancy new computer, I bought a program for the computer that would allow me to burn CDs using the songs I was downloading from Napster. I started telling all my friends at school about it and many of them asked if I could make them a CD with their favorite songs on it. 

Right there, my first business was born. I would have my classmates write down 10-15 songs they wanted, I would go home, download the songs from Napster, burn the CD, and charge them only $5 per CD! This was a steal to them! They got all of their favorite songs on one CD and got that one CD for just half of what they would have spent at the store for one band's CD! The blank CD's only cost about $1 a piece and it didn't take me very long to find the songs, download them, put them in to the program and click "burn". It was awesome! 

I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit about me. I have always loved finding ways to solve problems and provide value to people. With the CD burning business, I was making money and my classmates were getting their favorite songs and saving money. A true win-win. 

Many years later, Rey Rey Properties was founded on that same principle, trying to create win-win's for everyone who comes in contact with our business. Whether you are: an investor who is looking to invest money with us and get a healthy and safe return on your investment,  a property owner who is in a tough spot and needs to sell their property or a tenant who is looking for a safe place to live and a good environment to raise your family, we will always do our best to try to create a true win-win situation for everyone involved. 

So how did we get started and how did I get Carrie on board?

It all started when we went to visit one of my old college buddies in Hawaii in February of 2016. I had the idea about investing in real estate so I decided to pick up a couple real estate investing books for the flights. I don't get a ton of free time so getting on a plane and being able to read for hours is one of my favorite things to do. It's a chance to just unplug, kick back, and soak in some good quiet reading time (assuming I don't have to sit next to the crying kid or snoring old guy).

On that flight, I read a book that changes a lot of peoples lives and leads them to real estate, Rich Dad Poor Dad. This book, along with many others I read on the plane, helped me confirm that real estate investing is what I wanted to do long term to create financial freedom for my family. We came home from Hawaii, both pretty fired up about our future. Carrie was excited about the idea but she felt that she didn't know enough about it to be able to get in to it. 

 At this same time, I had stumbled across an amazing website called www.biggerpockets.com. I was reading article after article, listening to every podcast I could, and reading through the guides they have on their site. I was so jacked up but Carrie felt like she was going to need to take a class in real estate or read more books on the subject before she could really decide to take action. I got her to look at the site one night, she downloaded the "Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing" and that night she couldn't stop talking about it. 

 From that day forward, we have been a team working together to true win-win opportunities for our partners and clients. 

 The last year has been an amazing ride. We have closed our first few wholesale deals. We bought our own dream house out in the country toward where I grew up, only to move back to Green Bay after 7 months because we missed the city . We went to Hawaii where the idea for Rey Rey Properties was born and spent 10 awesome days on the islands with some great friends. We partnered with two of Wisconsin's leaders in wholesaling, private lending and flipping and have been learning from all of their experiences. Carrie got licensed as a Real Estate Agent and has been working on placing new systems to automate our business. All in all, 2016 was an amazing year for us, but we are just getting started. 

 We hope that if you have a need, whether it is to buy a home, sell a home, get a better return on your IRA's or other investments, or just have a question, that Rey Rey Properties can be here to help you. If we can't personally help you, we will certainly put you in touch with one of our many trusted partners who will take care of you and service your needs. 

 Thanks for reading and check back often for more updates on Rey Rey, on investing, and other fun topics as we expand and grow our business and services to the greater Green Bay area!