My First Month

Why we are here

Since I was a teen I was always fascinated by Real estate and business ownership. A few weeks ago my wife and I made up our minds we were going to take the plunge and start on the Real Estate investing journey. I am keeping my day job as a web development / IT engineer while we move forward. A real estate license should be forth coming as well, since I have almost completed the 60 hours required by the state of TN. I only have the test and the post test 30 hours of online courses to take.

Getting Started

This month has been a whirlwind to say the least. I have listened to about half of the BP podcast episodes, read Rich Dad Poor Dad (great read), The Idiot's Guide To Land Lording, and a few other books. The Four Hour Workweek is on its way and I am definitely looking forward to reading through that in the coming week. 

So far we have looked at 20 properties,  and made preliminary offers on 3. These properties have been a mix of owner financing deals and approval from a conventional lender for up to a 100K purchase with 15% down.  If the deals don't work we will keep on going. One thing is for sure. We are not going to overspend on properties because we are not willing to wait for the best deals. This is going to be a marathon and we are making sure we get our foundations down first.

NOTE - It was awkward the first time trying to negotiate with a seller for a lesser price than they are asking, but it was surprising how they still seemed interested in my low offer. It seems as if they were not expecting to get their asking price in the first place.

Bumps In The Road

The main issue we are running into right now is that the deals are not readily apparent in asking price or listing price. I have already learned that you have to really navigate through the conversation to see if there is a deal to be made. I think at this point we are dealing with some anxiety based on just starting out, but it is not deterring us from moving forward. 

Next On The Agenda

This weekend we tried "driving for dollars" and have 4 properties we are going to trace and send letters to the owners because they were abandoned. Our goal right now is to get a couple of single family homes and a couple of multi-family units that have high cash flow yields. I am really looking for a $200+ per door cash flow if at all possible. Only time will tell but we are hopeful.