How I Turned $50K into $1 Million!

How I Turned $50K into $1 Million!

Hi, My name is Edward and I want to tell you a story from my life about how good things happen when you have perseverance  and patience.

How I turned $50K into $1 million.

In about 1987 when I was 21, I decide to buy real estate. I am a native San Francisco, born in Chinatown from a very modest family income (basically poor). Even though my parents never stressed getting a good education, they did mention to me once in a while that having your own home was important. Starting working part time when I was 15 ½, mainly after school and on the weekends at Safeway, which my uncle was the manager and hired me. Unfortunately he did not stay long after hiring me. He went to another Safeway and I found out from my mom he suffered from great headaches due being hit in the head with a gun during a robbery.

During the summer of 1987, I purchased a 4 bedroom 2 bath ranch house in Pittsburg, CA.  The house was 1477 square ft but the lot was 10,200 square ft. At the time, I just bought what I could afford and the most space for the money. The purchase price was $109K. 2 years later, I bought a 2 story house which had 4 bedroom 2 bath. The purchase price was $180K. Then one year later in 1990, I purchased a 1 bedroom 1 bath (Concord, California) condo for $45k.

Now to explain the math on how $40K turned into 1 million. The 4 bedroom 2 bath house in Pittsburg down payment  was $10K, so let’s round up the number to $15K with closing cost. Next the 4 bedroom 2 bath house in Concord down payment was $25K which is rounded up to include closing cost. For the Concord house, I did not even have the 10 percent down to buy the house which would have been $18K. Only had about $10K, but the seller was willing to carry a second loan for $10K at 10 percent for a 5 year balloon payment. The last one, which was the 1 bedroom 1 bath Concord condo, I will say the total down payment was $5K. Since I round up the cost of the two homes, I am using use $5K as the total cost for the $45K Concord condo sale.

Let’s add it up $15K, $25K and $5K = $45K (round up to $50K). Then in 2005, the tenant at the Pittsburg house informed me that they were moving, so I decide to sell the house since real estate prices were climbing. The house sold for $430K on 6/23/2005. The sale went so fast and smoothly, I decided to sell the 2 other properties. On 3/10/2006, the Concord house sold for $457,500. Then later on 11/16/2006, the Concord condo sold for $199K. Let’s add it up again $430K, $458K, and $199k = $1.08M. Now you’re thinking, Wow! One million dollars! But, (there’s always a but in there somewhere) it took 20 years to make that and then 1/3 of the profits went to taxes (federal and state) and both the profits from the Pittsburg and Concord house was split 50/50 between my brother and I, since they both were considered family properties.

The Concord condo I bought myself but still had to pay taxes on the profits. A few statistics to remind us about the world we live in. Global median salary is $18K. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day. Think about the $10 when you eat lunch on any given day.

 

p.s.
I met Sara, Founder of WIRL Project, at an event in San Francisco. I am a very private person, but she asked for help and I like to pay it forward.
I am looking for help with my new startup also = www.blendedd.com
Any content that can be posted/listed would be highly appreciated.

Thank you,
Edward

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