Hello, new member here...  

I live in Maryland (born and raised) and I'm just beginning to research the prospect of investing into real estate. Real estate has been somewhat of an interest in the back of my mind ever since my wife and I bought our home 8 years ago. As a future investor, I can't bring myself to fully trust and embrace the market (stocks, bonds, trust funds, etc), seeing how my 9-5 401k isn't doing so well, and relying on my company's pension plan isn't for the faint of heart. I really loathe the idea of not being in complete control of my own finances, nor do I have much interest in better understanding the market.. Fortunately, I am hopeful I can change this bleak outlook through the course of 2016 and consider this sort of investment for the future (or as my wife would put it "this crazy idea you have...")

As a father, I determined the most important obligation to my first son was to work hard and get my body into better shape, in order to better keep up with the little scamp. I lost upwards of 30lbs with the expense of one injury rehabilitation. He is now in his terrible 2's and I'm in the best health of my life. And just recently, we've been blessed with our second child. Now, my attention has changed to the future needs of my family  (be it retirement planning, college funding, etc). I'm not afraid of hard work, physical labor, and due diligence with research.

I'm a bit overwhelmed at the moment as I work through the helpful beginner's guide provided by BP and just scratching the surface to the complexities of investing in real estate. My initial primary focus is to better understand this kind of investment as a whole and figure out how to develop a plan that meets our needs. When ready, I'm interested in buy and hold SFR investments initially, but I'm open minded to my options.

Maybe this isn't as crazy as my wife thinks...