What is it about real estate?

[Cheryl C.]

Why are you in real estate? What was the source of your motivation?

For me, I grew up with it. My dad was a professional and my mom bought and managed the apartment buildings. I spent my summers painting and cleaning apartments - we lived in a college town, so there was alot of turnover in the summer months. My mother loved to look at new possible purchases and I loved to go along. My grandmother had rentals.

What inspired you? Books, late-night TV, family?

[Sharad M.]

Cheryl,

Great question. I had no background in real estate when I started. I grew up in India and my parents were not related to real estate industry in any way when I was growing up. What inspired me to get into real estate was freedom. I had a great corporate job with great benefits, but it wasn't for me. I worked there for 5 years and always knew that I wanted to do something else. Never really knew what until I learned more about real estate. I think I was reading some personal finance blog and read something about real estate. Started researching a little more and came across BiggerPockets and that just got me kick started.

I wouldn't have been so aggressive about my real estate goals if it weren't for all the knowledge and information I came across here. I spent couple of months on BP reading past forums and learning about different strategies. As I read more and more, I saw myself learning towards buy and hold and that's what I have been doing for past year or so, full-time since April of this year.

I am truly very thankful to Josh for creating BP and all the members here for the wealth of knowledge.