How Henry Decided On Appreciation As His Investment Strategy

Henry works in Product at Meta, and like many others, started with building his investments in 401k, then investing in stocks. Once he built up a sizable portfolio, he wanted to buy an investment home. For 2 years, he connected with peers and colleagues about real estate investing, and learned from online videos. However, the complexity of investing in an investment home miles away from home (California) prevented him from actually getting into the game. Henry was able to buy his first investment home last year through Doorvest (and even referred his mom, who is now a Doorvestor as well!) See our complete interview with Henry below!

How did you save for the down payment?

I reallocated funds from selling some of my stocks and used that for the downpayment.

Why did you decide to sell some of your stocks?

I wanted to diversify my portfolio into real estate and find a method of leveraging appreciation in a high-quality investment home.

You mention high quality, what does that mean for you? What are some of your criteria?

As a first-time homebuyer, I thought long and hard about cash flow vs appreciation, many real estate gurus talk about cash flow being king, but I soon realized that I wanted to make a bet on a home/location that would appreciate in value. After evaluating a few deals, I realized that the most important thing to me was school ratings specifically ratings for high schools. Generally, I felt that a rating over 5 was considered strong enough. This made me feel confident that my rental home was a high-quality investment.

Do you have any tips on ways you saved money?

Setting aside a percentage of my paycheck to invest every month helped a lot with my savings.

How was your experience working with Doorvest?

I found the team extremely helpful. They were on top of emails and I received a lot of guidance throughout my purchase. I also love that Doorvest took care of a lot of the research that goes into acquiring a home - for example, it felt good to know that homes that were shared with me all avoided flood zones. All of this gave me a lot of trust in the team. I’ve now had my home under management by Doorvest for close to a year, and have always received my rents on time. It’s truly been a passive experience for me. I know that things come up as part of being an investor, but feel grateful for the team and my residents (who were vetted by Doorvest).

What general advice would you give to others?

If you really want to buy an investment home, consider how much you’ll need for the downpayment, save for it, have a timeline-based goal, and work towards achieving that goal. It’s also important to make sure that you think about why you want it and stick to the “why” so that those reasons are grounded when doubts or analysis by paralysis kicks in.