How Jenny and Her Family Are Thinking About Real Estate As Part Of Their Retirement Plan

Our Doorvestors

Sep 5

“As an educator, landscape construction worker, and nail technician, [Jenny and her family] wouldn’t have guessed that [they] would ever be investment homeowners.” As Khang and Thi (Jenny’s parents) enter retirement, they have become more aware of the importance of investing. They already had traditional investments like mutual funds and CDs but were seeing low-yield returns amidst a pandemic, volatile markets, and rising inflation. They started seeing friends and relatives buy, renovate and rent out affordable investment homes out of state, but the process was lengthy and cumbersome. Enter Doorvest.

“Doorvest made it possible for us to own a rental home entirely online – from purchasing the home to renovations, to finding residents and maintaining and managing the home. After submitting the deposit, it took [Jenny and her parents] about 2 weeks to select a home and then 3 weeks to close on our home in Houston and receive [their] first rental check.”

Now, families like Jenny’s can access a source of financial security and growth without jumping through the hurdles themselves. Read on to learn more about their Doorvest experience and the financial performance of their current investment!

Why did you want to invest in real estate?

My parents are Vietnam refugees who work 6 days a week as a landscape construction worker and as a nail technician. I don’t know how they did it, but they managed to raise five children in the Bay Area.

As they are entering retirement, they’ve become more aware of the importance of investing. In the last five years, they’ve leaned on me to invest in CDs, mutual funds, and to open their very first IRA account. Seeing the low-yield nature of these investments, carrying the burden of investing their life savings became more and more daunting in the backdrop of the pandemic, volatile markets, and rising inflation.

The incredible opportunity in real estate was obvious to us for a while but was never on the table because of the skyrocketing price of Bay Area homes and because of the complexity of the home buying process that was further exacerbated by language and technology barriers. Real estate felt out of reach for my parents who still waited for one of my siblings to visit to translate email exchanges and navigate their devices. Maybe that’s why they decided to have five children – less wait time ;).

We started to see friends and family relatives buy, renovate, and rent out affordable investment homes outside of the state, but the process was lengthy and cumbersome. Can I really fly out to another state to take care of renovations on top of a full-time job? Who would find residents and maintain the home? It didn’t seem feasible and we knew we were passing on a worthwhile opportunity.

So when a friend told me about Doorvest, it gave us so much relief and hope. Now families like us can finally access a source of financial security and growth without jumping through the hurdles ourselves. Doorvest addressed all the pain points of homeownership that deterred us from ever considering it.

Doorvest made it possible for us to own a rental home entirely online – from purchasing the home, to renovations, to finding residents and maintaining and managing the home. After submitting the deposit, it took us about 2 weeks to select a home and then 3 weeks to close on our home in Houston and receive our first rental check.

As an educator, a landscape construction worker, and a nail technician, we wouldn’t have guessed that we would ever be investment homeowners – thank you Doorvest for making this possible!

Why did you decide to invest in real estate through Doorvest?

Though real estate investments require more work up front, they are more stable, while having a higher potential for exponential appreciation. We saw the opportunity in buying and renovating affordable homes outside of the state of California but didn’t have the bandwidth to manage all the moving pieces on our own. Doorvest simplified the process on all fronts.

How did you save for the down payment?

We decided on a 20% down payment for $40,400. My parents and I split the cost of the down payment. As a rule of thumb, I have a practice of setting aside 20% of my monthly income for savings and investments. Half of my down payment came from my cash savings and the other half came from selling a few of my higher-risk investments. *Cryptocurrency cough* My parents reallocated money that was previously vested in CD’s into their down payment.

How was your experience working with Doorvest?

We reserved a 3Bed, 2Ba home in Houston, Texas at the price of $202,000 in March 2022 and the home was appraised for $210,000. Three months later, it is now estimated to be worth $228,500.

Sale Price: $202,000 (3Bed, 2BA, 1478 sqft)
Appraisal: $210,000
Down Payment: $40,400
Mortgage Interest Rate: 4.625%
Rental Price: $1650
- Monthly Mortgage Payment: $1312.45 (Includes Taxes and Home Insurance)
- Doorvest Service Fee: $165 (10% of rent)
- HOA: $15/month
- Cash flow: +$157.55

Here’s the breakdown of what the process looked like for us for a rental home that was already renovated by Doorvest.

Submit a fully refundable deposit
Reserve a home (2 weeks)
Closing Process (3 weeks)
1. Compare several mortgage lenders. Submit financial paperwork. Select a lender.
2. Submit a purchase-ready pre-approval letter from the lender and sign the purchase agreement.
3. Lock in the interest rate. Lender schedules an appraisal.
4. Compare home insurance providers and select a provider.
Closing day:
1. Sign closing disclosures.
2. Receive access to the online portal and receive the first rental check.

The Doorvest team is very communicative, responsive, and helpful every step of the way. This was my first time ever seriously looking into real estate and I was nervous about selecting a home and going through the mortgage loan process. My cousin who lived in Houston gave us several neighborhood recommendations which accelerated our decision. When it was time to select a lender, Doorvest recommended several lenders (I went with Beeline) and connected us to a dedicated loan guide for Doorvest clients. The online dashboards for both Doorvest and the lender made it very clear what was required of us to move to the next step.

The entire process from submitting a deposit to closing on the home took us about 5 weeks. Because the home was already renovated, Doorvest was able to place residents on the property by the time we closed. On the day of closing, I received access to the online portal for our investment home and was surprised to already see the first rent check ready to be deposited into our bank account. Their motto is “generate passive, reliable income from day one,” and I didn’t think they were literal about “day one.”

Because our rental home cash flows, we haven’t had to invest any additional money outside of the down payment, so the home currently pays for itself. Seeing how easy this process was, we’re excited to purchase more investment homes with Doorvest in the future and have recommended many friends and relatives.

Here are a few post-renovation photos of the investment property I closed through Doorvest in 2020:

How is your investment going?

We have now owned the investment home for over 3 months and are able to manage the home through the online portal that Doorvest provides. Things are running smoothly and I’m pleasantly surprised by how little I have to do. With the online portal, I’m able to receive rent payments, review the lease of current residents, see maintenance requests and receipts, and provide approval for any major requests. I particularly appreciate that Doorvest has a 1 year home renovation guarantee – so far it has covered the repair of the HVAC system. It’s nice that Doorvest takes care of the day-to-day maintenance and consults me for larger maintenance requests.

Anything else you would like to share?

Investing with a passive strategy is a viable way to get started in real estate. You may want to take on an active role one day but there’s a lot you need to know and understand before taking this next step. For folks that are like my family, who want to start building strong financial health, this is where you can start. Doorvest does a great job at providing an end-to-end solution, from researching the location and neighborhood to vetting out the residents and providing day-to-day support after closing.