My husband and I are fairly new to real estate investing. He owns a pest control company and I'm a substitute teacher. Owning rental property seemed like a pipe dream for us. But then when the market tanked in 2010, the impossible became probable! We used 30,000 we had held onto from a re-finance to purchase our first rental. It took us four LONG years to find that deal. Real estate agents for short sales ignored our calls and banks weren't that cooperative back in 2007! We also didn't have the clout of other investors who could pay cash. But in 2011, a friend of realtor, gave us a tip on someone who was seeking to do a short sale on her duplex. The owner was severely upside down and was highly motivated to get her tenants out who had been staying there rent free for over a year! We paid the eviction costs and threw in a pest control treatment of her current residence (she thought she had bedbugs!) to sweeten the deal. I'm sure there were bigger fish out there trying to buy her property but we were able to gain the loyalty of the owner and solve her problem.  Since then we've been able to purchase four more rentals that we self-manage. Those purchases were made possible by  networking and solving other people's problems. I've since gotten my real estate license and have partnered with a property management company. We are continuing to look for buy and hold deals and hope to both be doing real estate full-time.

I share this story of our first purchase because if we can do it, you can too! We look forward to meeting all of you and feel fortunate to have found such an awesome resource in Bigger Pockets!

Penny