Long Distance Assistance

[Taylor Barlow]

I've recently decided I want to start focusing on buying real estate. I want to leave my 9-5 ASAP.

I moved out of the country for my work and started renting out my home in Houston. Shortly after we inherited a fully paid off home in Dallas, which we are renting too.

I'm looking for an agent to work with in the Houston area and maybe throughout Texas or beyond. I need a lot of guidance and help with my first rental purchase. This will be technically my first purchase of rental property, and being out of the country is making me more wary. Does anyone has anyone they can recommend as an agent to help guide me (answer millions of questions) through all the steps? I'm interested in single or multi-family properties.

[Jim K.]

Quote from @Taylor Barlow:

I want to leave my 9-5 ASAP.

Does anyone has anyone they can recommend as an agent to help guide me (answer millions of questions) through all the steps?

I just want to mention that real estate investing and this life goal are typically not compatible, although many people these days initially come to REI with the express goal of quitting their 9-5 job immediately. I'm a good example. It ended up taking me 13 years to fully quit my job and replace it with work related to our real estate business.

I'm not saying it isn't possible at all, I'm just saying that people starting in real estate investing usually find that a quick transition  from full-time employee to full-time real estate investor really isn't practical for them. Real estate usually ends up being a lifestyle and ends up as a slow but sure progression to self-employment or a very slow progression to full retirement.

The second statement you make is a clear appeal for a coach or mentor, in your case, you envision such a person would be a real estate agent with a lot of answers. This also usually isn't practical. People who end up paying for basic coaching to save time more often than not regret it. To my mind, at least, it's far better to spend some time now, read through a few books (or a few dozen), work through some of the resources here and form your own picture of the sort of investing that you might want to do in the future.

In any case, good luck to you going forward.