Progress has been slow, but it is happening...

[Torrean Edwards]

A little over a year ago, I returned to this platform after a 7-year, unintentional/forced hiatus. My best friend ruined me, and set me back, but I found resilience through faith and through my wife. 

Over the last year, my wife and I have been busy. 

- I began attending local REIA meetings (I need to start going back),

- I connected with brilliant investors here (Rebecca Knox, chief amongst them), 

- I began reaching out to investor-friendly agents, 

- met with dozens of lenders, 

- met with tens of contractors, 

- and then... made the leap. 

We closed our first property together in January 
And then... we lept again and again. 

Last year, we bought 6 new properties, 8 total doors.

And as of February 2nd, we have two more under contract.

But we have not been without our fair share of struggle and acrimony...and mistakes: 

We did not always choose lenders well, forcing me into using more cash to close deals than I should have which has signifcantly limited my ability to continue to scale. 

We did not choose our contractor well; we relied largely on a family member. I love him, but my God-brother has been slow, has not always finished projects, and while affordable and helpful (he has done things without asking and has helped me find tenants), he is inconsistent. I am not sure how to deal with this because he still feels entitled, and I feel like I owe him (because he has literally saved my life from drowning).

I have not done a great job of record-keeping. My wife is a great life partner and credit partner, but she is not "super-interested" in the day-to-day of real investing. So, on top of my day job as a public interest attorney, I also manage our portfolio, find and interview the contractors, walk the properties, negotiate the contracts, find the money, evaluate tenants, do the minor repairs, do the lawn maintenance and shoveling, and try to network and make the new connections. Because of this, I fear I have missed some key steps. 

Sourcing deals from MLS is imperfect as well. Margins are tight, and the competition is insane in Milwaukee. It is sometimes hard to compete.

I also bought some great cashflowing deals (PTIA over 2.3) that have a low appraised value, making it harder to extract my initial capital contribution (so the money is parked, making it harder to scale than I anticipated)

My goal remains to scale:

I still seek mentorship, better systems, new ways to source deals, more connections, and better contractors.

I hope Bigger Pockets continues to be the place to help fill these gaps. \8999999999 

[Greg Kasmer]

@Torrean Edwards - Looks like you're learning from the "School of Hard Knocks" along the way - the best teacher/professor of them all! However, I would suggest you post/ask as you have questions along the way. There are many experienced folks in this group that are always willing to help. You're made excellent progress thus far and the best thing you can do is keep going! Good Luck!