Stumbling into Real Estate Investing

In June of this year I was faced with the fortunate dilemma of where to invest a lump sum income payment from my employer.  I have always had an interest in real estate, and a loose interest in obtaining a rental property "some day."  I casually searched realtor.com and found a property that looked promising, and it had been listed that day.   About 3 days later I was under contract with a cash offer on my first 3 unit.

It was not until several weeks later, and many many hours of biggerpockets podcasts, did I learn that I had lucked out and picked up an incredible "deal."   After careful analysis I determined that this first property has roughly a 19% cash on cash return (after refinancing).   Once I saw this, compared to the woefully pathetic returns on my 401k and other investments, I wondered - how will things look in 5 years if I take this cash and put it all into similar real estate deals?   That and I became slightly obsessed with finding similar "deals" and started dreaming of quitting my day job.

Thus started the daily hunt and analysis of dozens of properties.   Over the summer I picked up a 2 unit in a tax sale.   You can't say I'm afraid to jump in!  The tax sale property likely needs more work that I'm interested in getting into so I'll likely sell it off to another investor.  

I'm currently under contract for a 5 unit (16% cash on cash), and still hunting for 1 or 2 more deals.   My plan is to track the real estate returns against the same funds invested in a 401k (oh and quitting my day job in 5 years....).