I've been interested in real estate for several years but I first got seriously interested in buy-and-hold rentals in the fall last year after reading The Real Estate Millionaire. I didn't have the cash on hand to get started so my wife and I put our house on the market because we had a lot of equity tied up in it and decided a less expensive house would suit our needs. A guest on one of the podcasts did this so I felt like I was in good company. Unfortunately, it didn't go well for us so we decided to do a VA Cash Out Refinance instead after I found a bank that offered us a 30 year mortgage at a 3.25% interest rate. We closed on it last Friday and hope to make our first offers on some investment properties soon. We live in Chapin, SC and are primarily looking in the Irmo, SC area. I've listened to ~50 of the BiggerPockets podcasts, read a lot of blog posts, and have been lurking in the forums so I am looking forward to applying the knowledge I've picked up over the past 9 months and learning more!