You are going to love Gabriel's story as it is full of ups and downs. Gabriel's entrepreneurial journey to this point was not easy, but he is definitely going to be known as one of the greats. Gabriel was an open book during our interview, and did not shy away from any of my questions about his past or plans for the future. There is a great deal to learn in this article for any entrepreneur who may be questioning his or her business future. Enjoy!
Interview by: Michaelson Williams
My interview with Mr. Hamel was both exciting and enlightening! Gabriel opened my eyes to some misconceptions I had about real estate and buying property with No Money Down. We are publishing this interview in two parts, as the information herein is just to important to truncate. As a reader, take your time engaging Gabriel's story, and then visit his website. Gabriel is an open book and loves to help others with no expectation of immediate return. This is a rear find in people today, so enjoy Gabriel's story and then take action. https://hamelinvestment.com
Williams: Gabriel let's talk about where you got your start in real estate, and your background?
Hamel: So, I can go back further, even prior to buying my first property. I was always interested in business even in high school. High school and academia just wasn't something I was super interested in. I stayed in high school because of the social aspect, and wrestling. I actually joined the Army National Guard my senior year of high school. I didn't really have a lot of direction and a couple years after high school in 2002 I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad. That was the book that really opened my eyes to the opportunity of creating financial freedom through real estate. I knew after reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad even though it's not a how-to book, real estate was going to be my path. I was going to become financially free. I was going to do it through real estate, so I started telling everybody what I was going to do. And most people thought, hey, you're crazy... And you're an idiot, what makes you think you can do real estate?
Williams: So prior to this experience, were you actually thinking about dropping out of high school?
Hamel: I wasn't thinking about dropping out of high school. I stayed in high school because wrestling was something really important to me. My love for wrestling and the social aspect is what kept me in high school. Sitting in the classroom listening to lectures was not a super conducive environment for me. I just didn't learn well in that environment. High school wasn't interesting to me. The teachers, everyone were pushing me to go to college, and even my parents who didn't go to college pushed me to do so.
I think that was kind of the default setting, right? When you graduate high school you should go to more school and that just didn't seem at all interesting to me. I think society really pushes the idea that you must attend years of schooling to be successful, but I was always attracted to business in some way.
Hamel Continues: I always wanted to really make my own money. From age 12 to 16 I had a paper route and at 16 I was selling candy out of my locker in middle school. I was selling condoms out of my locker in early high school. Again, I was just kind of always attracted to business and my idea of business. I came back from my tour in Iraq and Kuwait in 2004, and I started looking at properties. It was a really hot market then. The bank approved me for a no money down loan, which seemed crazy to me the time. I had no ideas, no job, and no money at the time, and this was during the subprime market. The bank told me they would give me a loan for my first property. So I found a home, a little three bedroom two bath house, and it was a 100% financing deal. I ended up renting out two of the bedrooms which is referred to now as House Hacking. Renting out my bedrooms just made good financial sense. I could live for less expensive than I could anywhere else by renting out the two other rooms.
Williams: Gabriel that's actually one of my questions. There's always new terms that we get introduced to and House Hacking is one that I would love for you to elaborate on.
Hamel: Yeah, so House Hacking is really just the ability to take a typical property, whether it's a single family or multi-family home, and be able to create some sort of revenue stream from it. So, maybe typically someone would buy their first property and live in it themselves. The person would have the utility of the home even if they didn't need the other bedrooms. If the person does not need the other bedrooms they would rent them out to someone else. So, House Hacking in the simplest form would be similar to what I did with my first house. I bought a three bedroom, two bath house just being a single guy, and to offset my mortgage I rented out two of three bedrooms. This covered the majority of my mortgage and so I was living for way less than I could have lived anywhere else. This allowed more money to stay in my pocket. Sometimes people rent out rooms in their home as office space. I've even heard of people sleeping in a living room and they rent out all of their bedrooms to other people. People have been known to cover their entire mortgages this way. House Hacking is just really a way to offset your expenses by renting out a portion of the house...
This story gets much better, so continue the journey with Gabriel.
You will find the rest of this interview article at MMAP Magazine
Follow Gabriel Hamel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gabrielrhamel/
Am really learning from this story author