My goal in writing this forum is to motivate other young people to work hard, take action, and take risk. To show them that you don't have to be exceptionally smart, or have tons of money.

For a long time I didn't like talking about my accomplishments because I would always hear "wow that is amazing for your age". I didn't want to be compared to other people my age because the average person my age is no where near where I want to be. That's fine for them but not for me. I didn't want to be successful for my age, I wanted to be successful period.

Today at 24 years old, I would like to share how I got to where I am today. Bare with me on my writing I am dyslexic so it has never been my strength.

Let's start at the beginning. I was a poor student. I had bad grades in anything involving reading or writing. But man was I good in woodshop. Working with my hands just always made sense I could see the project from start to finish even if it was 1000 steps. I won awards for my projects when I was a freshman in high school. I thought I would be a furniture maker when I grow up. Well as high school went by I decided wood working was a hobby not a carrier. My skill working with my hands needed to be implemented else where. So my senior year I signed up to do the work release program to work half the day and go to school half the day. I jumped as a cleaner/ basic handyman for a small REI. Company. Any time he asked me "do you know how to do XYZ" I said yes ( I had no idea what I was doing). I learned through trial and error, but again this kind of work always came natural to me.

The day I graduated high school my brother and I bought a 4 bed house together ( mom and dad consigned). We planned to live there rent two rooms to friends and renovate it slowly. Well by month three we had added 2 more bedrooms in the basement. So we had 6 guys all in one house. It stayed this way for the next 5 years. My brother and I not only lived for free but also cash flowed on top of it. During those 5 years my brother and I ran a small construction company renovating kitchens and bathrooms. We did all the work ourselves. We learned through YouTube. Trial and error, and failing many inspections. By the end of college we had lived so frugal and had the house hack for 5 years that we were able to save up a chunk of money to get started in REI. Man did we hit the ground running.

In march 2012 we bought our first two properties we bought highly distressed and did massive renovations. All while continuing to take on construction jobs to pay for the next investment. By the end of 2014 we had bought 8 SFRs cash and did the massive renovations to get them rented.

Fast forward to today and we own a total of 18 units 9 SFRS, 2 duplexes, and a 5 unit apartment building.

How did we afford it? We took only what we needed and everything else went back into the company. In 2014 we gave up the construction company to focus strictly on REI. It isn't easy to see all that money coming every month and only take 2-3 hundred dollars to live off for the month. When I say we were frugal I mean it! But we had a goal and building the foundation quickly was required.

We plan to purchase a 10-50 unit building In 2015.

I hope some of you made it through my unorganized ramble and take away that you don't need to have anything exceptional just an unrelenting drive to achieve what you want. I am no where near my ultimate goal but I just now am feeling that we have built a solid foundation to build massive wealth on. To all other young investors. My advice can be summed into one quote " live like most won't so that you can live like most can't"