From Knowing Nothing About Real Estate to Owning 3 Properties
A little over five years ago, I was working in hospitality, feeling completely burnt out, not making great money, and honestly knew absolutely nothing about real estate investing.
Then I stumbled across a job opportunity at BiggerPockets after deciding to move across the country (I moved during the interview process by the way so nothing was actually locked in).
At the time, I had no idea how much that decision would change the trajectory of my life. Being surrounded by real estate education (and people who were actually out there investing) made me realize that building wealth through real estate wasn't something reserved for people who grew up around it or had a ton of money. It was something I could learn, too. So I did.
I bought my first property and house hacked it. Then I bought another. And eventually, a third.
Today, I own three properties, with my first two generating roughly $1,500/month in cash flow. The third is my current primary residence, and I'm renting out a room to my brother.
I definitely didn't have some master plan five years ago. I just started learning from BiggerPockets, attending a ton of meetups, reading a few books, and taking action.
I'm sharing this because I know there's a lot of people on BiggerPockets who are where I was five years ago: burnt out, wanting something different, but feeling like they don't know enough about real estate to actually get started.
I can assure you that you don't have to know everything before getting started. I certainly didn't.
A few years can change a lot!
For those of you just diving into the world of investing, what first opened your eyes to real estate? And if you’re still on the sidelines, what’s holding you back from getting started?
Most Popular Reply
Hey Danielle,
Didn't know a lot of this! Talk about taking a swing and trusting your intuition.
I think what comes up over and over as a hesitation for a lot of early investors is confidence. Do I know enough? Is my home market actually a good place to invest? Do I have the skillsets/ resources necessary to find a quickly cash flowing market and run it Out-of-State?
What's abundantly clear is that every successful real estate investor did exactly what you do: they said "okay lets do it". There's going to be hiccups on that first property, there's going to be things that go south, but most importantly there's going to be lessons learned. The more education beforehand, the better, for sure. But half the battle is getting the foot in the door, so I love stories like this that exemplify the gutsy, yet inevitable move to push forward in that journey.
