Looking to make first investment, help wanted!

[Andrew Wera]

Hey everyone! 
I’m completely new to this and I’m trying to soak in as much advice and knowledge as possible. I’m a firefighter by trade and I’ve got a decent amount of experience doing house renovations on my own homes but never had any investment properties. 

I renovated our last home and it brought us a great return when we sold it. We bought a new build and have a some good equity in the home already. We have some cash leftover and I usually would take extra money to buy and flip cars but we are looking to gain real assets and not just quick flips.

My wife and I are looking to buy our first investment property as soon as we possibly can. We have two small children and want to build a great future for our family. 

I don’t want to take away too much time from my family but I don’t mind putting in some sweat equity as we first start out. 

I just want to dive in feet first as well as go about our first investment with the best chance of successs, too. 

I’d love to hear how you would invest if you were just starting out like my wife and I! Thank you all and we look forward to interacting with the Biggerpockets community!

-Andy

[Steven Wesolowski]

Greetings Andy! Welcome to the world's largest real estate investing network!

Having ownership of property working for you is a noble endeavor. And we are all crash-dummies in this endeavor!

The important thing you and your wife need to discover is what type of properties you both agree on will make the most sense for your growing portfolio. Ideally, you should start small with finding properties that are light in renovation and are projects that will buy you time to execute the renovation work without losing time for your return on investment. Communication is key. You and your family should define your risk tolerance in the event a rehab project goes south. But at the same time, envision what your properties are doing for you and your family.

Kudos to you that you are willing to put in the sweat equity for the near-term sake, but in order to not draw you away from family, you will need to learn to prepare to leverage the renovation work to another contractor, and same, to a property manager, or to just a third party involving your investment property accumulation, in general. I am actually in the middle of discovering that process myself, and it has been a roller coaster of emotion, but I have started feeling experiences of how trust in other people can get you achieving the objectives faster than we think.

I have got several off-market deals in Central Texas currently available, and can help you learn a thing or two about our market down here, and more than happy to refer you to folks in Illinois. Hope you enjoyed reading this!