What a great resource! I've been on this site for about 9 months now, but very infrequently. This year I plan to participate much more so I'm finally getting around to doing my intro.

I grew up lower middle class to really hard working dedicated immigrant parents. I'm public school educated in New York, no connections or pedigree. Just a sheer desire to want to build on what my parents gave us.

I've been working full-time for almost 15 years now, various employers in financial services and have held jobs in both IT and finance. Got married 18 months back, have a 9 year old step daughter and we have a 2 month old healthy baby boy.

Having well-paying jobs over the years ($100k-$200k) and getting my employers to pay most of my undergraduate and all of my graduate school costs helped me imo get a slight 'edge' on my peers.

When I "started" in real estate at 25, my net worth was about $60k after having worked real jobs for almost 4 years. I bought a three bedroom co-op apartment in Sunnyside Queens for $250k with 25% down and got two roommates to help me pay off the mortgage in 8 years.

My investing journey began 6 years ago when I picked up a 6-unit rent-stabilized building in Queens. You can read about that story here:

My NY Times story

I'm 37 now and have 12 "doors" that each provide bits of net cash-flow that very conservatively add up to about $3k/month EBITDA. Five of those units I picked up over the last year and are in Nashville, TN.

I'm looking forward to eight years from now when the biggest mortgages will be getting paid off--the additional cash-flow will be nice and will dovetail with my hopes of retiring from my day-job by 45.

Slow and steady wins the race. I'm looking to add more rental units to my portfolio. My sweet spot is in the $150k-$250k range. I can move on a deal pretty quickly with 25% down and close in 30-40 days (depending on the lender). Also have a small close group of associates that I can tap for additional funds if the right deal comes up.

I'd like to look further afield from NYC and Nashville. Obviously to make this happen, I need a great agent, a sharp inspector and a reputable and honest property manager. I hope I can increase that network here!

--AK--