Game Plan to my first property

[Eric Horn]

My game plan is I am aggressively saving $600 a month and I have two other people a good friend and a family member also saving similarly. We plan to start an LLC together and buy a property around $40-$50k by end of the year. We would do due diligence because we live in Chicago and can't really afford property here. Areas I am looking at are Indianapolis, St Louis, Milwaukee and Nashville. We would look to net roughly $250-$300 in profit a month after all expenses and fees including a good PM. Once our first property is a success we plan to take the equity out via a refinance and get a second one and hopefully scale to 10 properties quickly. Currently I am drinking the firehose and absorbing as much information and content as possible. I am doing pretend deal analysis for practice and fun on random properties I see on Zillow. I am looking at RoofStock Zillow the MLS Redfin for deals currently (Should I expand? Are their other options?). Any constructive pitfalls to look out for? Does this plan seem viable? Should I focus on my City Chicago, or is Out of State cool? Also I love the community this is my first post.

[Marcus Auerbach]

@Eric Horn in principle a good plan, but I'd like to caushen you about "scaling up quickly from there." Not to discourage you, because you are on the right track, but you need to have realistic expectations and avoid getting disappointed quickly. Real Estate is a long play, it works very well over time if you have the passion and edurance, but you won't get rich quickly.

It is actually surprisingly simple, but it's not really easy. Let that sink in for a moment.

If you talk to people you will see that the first properties take a while (like 6-8 years) to replace your active income, but once you have 5 or 6 you will be able to grow faster than for the first few. Regardless, even only one good property will change your financial trajectory over it's life.

I see you have Milwaukee on the radar and you live in Chicago - I suggest this. Pick the ten best properties you can find on Zillow in your target price range and then drive up here on a Sunday morning an check them out in person from curbside and see if you are comfortable with the area. Getting out an looking at properties in person is absolutley key! Good luck!