Debt, no money, decent income - how to start
Warning - this may be a long post - I will try to section it off. I have an on/off relationship with RE as I've always been drawn to it and always screwed it up - and then listened to those in my life who told me that it was not for me and I should just quit. I'm tired of being a quitter and something needs to change in my life - now. I've made a promise to myself that this is the time to get this RE thing right and create wealth that changes my family tree and I intend to keep it no matter how many times I screw it up going forward. I've finally got the mindset, but I have destroyed my credit, have no savings, decent income, but it's all being eaten up by debt payment. I'm 37, spent my whole life working and I've got $100,000 in debt and a negative net worth to show for it. RE represents a way out.
It all starts, however, with the first move. I have been looking at wholesaling until I have enough to fund my first deal. I would eventually like to get into doing BRRRR, but without being able to get the conventional refinance loans (due to bad credit), that would be out. Just trying to work out the best method to get this started.
Some Background:
I am a disabled Veteran. I have physical issues that prevent me from doing most traditional work. I have a wife that will be supportive once she sees the first check (until then she doesn't want me spending more than a couple hundred on anything related to this). I have been a property manager (which I hated), worked for a buy and hold investor for a bit helping find properties and shadowing (which I loved), and just recently did a stint as a real estate agent (which I loved talking to people who weren't agents, but hated the politics in the office). I have also bought and sold 5 properties, mostly breaking even over my small investing career. I eventually learned that deal analysis and buying is where the money really is.
I have a wife and a 10-year-old son who lives with us and a 22-year-old daughter who is struggling a lot in her life. Having a disabled dad who couldn't always be there for her (left the Air Force 10 years ago) didn't help, I'm sure. I need to help her out financially, but cannot yet. I also want to show my son a path to wealth-building that will allow him to live the kind of life he wants to live. As he is 10, I don't think I have a whole lot of time left to really get that through to him.
Wife is a hair stylist and makes about $24,000/yr. She would like to move to having her own salon or paying for her own chair, but we cannot afford that yet. I bring in about $36,000/yr from disability and other sources. I have a lot of free time to work on this.
Why Real Estate:
I love people and hearing their stories. I am usually a listener and try to understand where someone else is coming from. I am the type that will try to solve other people's problems, tending to think about solutions for not only a specific situation, but for the group of people that may fall into that type of scenario.
I also love numbers and spreadsheets. If left alone, I could spend all day tweaking a spreadsheet. I have had to learn over the years how to ensure that I focus on the 20% that gets 80% of the business. However, I am great with numbers and can usually sense when the numbers are off even if I haven't completely worked out the math.
Lastly, being a military man through and through, I fell in love with systems. I would much rather have a system with metrics that I know how to hit than blindly walking into something and just taking a guess. It is my way to cut through the chaos that normally exists otherwise. Over the past decade, I have had to work on being flexible while also adhering to a system. It's still a work in progress, but I have gotten better.
How I would like to invest:
I recently saw the BP podcast with Joe Asamoah and loved his idea of buying a 3br, turning it into a 5br, fixing it up nice, and then going with Section 8 tenants. I would love to help poor people get great housing. My market here in Missouri is a little less good for that sort of thing, but I thought it was interesting and would really like to find that sort of solution around here. I am definitely hooked on the idea of BRRRR investing for building wealth and cashflow.
What I am looking for now:
I don't know how exactly to get from where I am now to doing BRRRR investing. Would wholesaling right now be a good way to increase my income? I've never done it before. Is there some other investment vehicles that would build me some income that I could do now? Are there any other suggestions / other stuff I might be missing? I am ready to do whatever I physically can to begin this. Do I need to knock on doors? Can do. Call people? No problem. Go to meetup groups? Already started. Any advice is very much appreciated!