If you are reading this, you are wondering what the heck the FI Team is or who I am? If you stumbled here from Instagram, you may know me as @TheFIguy. If you got here from a Google Search or just from perusing the website, you may actually have no idea who I am. The purpose of this short article is to help you understand who I am, who the FI Team is, and what our purpose is.
Who am I?
To start, my name is Craig Curelop. I am a real estate investor, agent, and author of The House Hacking Strategy. My interest in real estate investing started back in August 2016. At the time, I was burdened with over $90,000 of student loan debt, had $30,000 saved up, and had a high motivation to achieve financial independence at a young age.
A big step is when I purchased my first investment property (a house hack) in June 2017 that provided me with $1,000 a month in rental income. I purchased two more of these over the next two years and in 2019, at age 26, I made my last student loan payment and officially hit financial independence. In other words, my income from my passive investments (real estate) exceeded my expenses.
These three investments made it so that I could officially quit (graduate from) my job at BiggerPockets to pursue a passion; helping OTHERS achieve financial independence through real estate investing.
For that reason, I started The FI Team along with my friend, Nick Monge.
What is the FI Team?
As a real estate investor, I remember it being painstakingly difficult to find an agent with an investor’s mindset. Not only an agent with an investor’s mindset, but also one that can guide me through the process, introduce me to their network, and help me analyze a deal. Doing this removes all barriers to investing and opens financial independence up to the masses.
Enter The FI Team. We are your one stop shop for investing in real estate. We are a team of agents based in Denver, CO that have the knowledge, experience, and connections you need to invest confidently. Whether you want to buy a traditional buy and hold, a house hack, BRRRR, or flip, we can help!
So what exactly do we do? Let me elaborate further!
We are your Agents:
First and foremost, we are your agents. We help you locate properties that meet your criteria, tour them with you, and make sure the process from going under contract to closing is smooth.
This is NOT how we distinguish ourselves. This is what every agent will do and is our baseline work. If the deal can’t get done, then nothing else we do matters. So first and foremost, we get the deal done.
We are your Consultants:
Secondly, we act as your investor consultants. What does that mean? Everyone on the team has investment experience and we all learn from each other. Through the entire process, we are going to help:
1. ANALYZE each deal: No one knows the numbers better than we do. With property all over the Denver metro area, we can give you estimated rents, rehab costs, and after repair values.
2. OPTIMIZE each deal: In every property there is a way to extract more or less cash flow. Typically, with more cash flow comes less comfortability and with more comfortability comes less cash flow. Depending on what you want, we can walk through and give many ideas on how to increase cash flow. Whether you take them or not is completely up to you.
3. CONNECT you with our network: Building a team of trustworthy contractors is typically the hardest and most frustrating part of real estate investing. We connect you with some of the best lenders, contractors, and property managers in the business for what you want to do.
4. SETUP your listings. Whether you are deciding to do a short-term rental or a long-term rental, we will guide you on how to set up your listing. From the pictures and description, to pricing, all the way down to automated messages and tenant screening if you need them!
5. GUIDE you for the long haul. When we do a deal together, we are now partners. We don’t leave you hanging after closing. Any investment type questions you have, we answer promptly after you asking.
If you decide to partner with us in obtaining your next Denver investment, you know that you have an A-Team of investor-friendly agents at your back. If you want to learn more or get in touch, fill out this short form here and we will be reaching out to you shortly.
