My Whys and goals for doing this!

My name is Eddie, a US Navy Vet of Operation Enduring Freedom. The closest category that describes me would probably be the first. Before I get into my history of REI, and what led me here, I want to get into my whys, which can be broken into 2 main areas, with several subareas.

My first is for the family I'm starting. My wife and I had our first son, who is closing in on 10 months. I've had my share of struggles over the years, as has my wife, and I want to be able to not only help his life be better, but to provide a venue for him to learn, so that when he comes of age, he can jump right into "the business."

The second reason is also no less personal. With the business, I want to be able to use some of that money, to help out people. The first, broad, group I want to help out are my fellow veterans. About 25% of the homeless population are veterans. At one point in my life, that was me. I'm not sure if you ever watched Five Finger Death Punch - Wrong Side Of Heaven, but that music video always hits me, no matter how many times I've seen it. While I, myself, was never in direct combat, I served aboard a medical ship, which would not only serve medically for The Marines, but serve as a point for evacuating civilians, if needed. These are the people I really need to help, having "Been there, done that, lost the film rights."

Another group I'm looking to help out, is Native Americans. I'm connected to them, indirectly, through my wife. A lot of Natives, especially the young, have no real goals, other than drinking and drugs. Most, if not all, receive stipends, as members of the tribe. When turning 18, they receive a large stipend; one young man, he spent it all on a fancy car, yet didn't even have his driver's license.

The goal is to help the Natives not only learn about good ways to use their money, for passive note investing, but to also use the opportunity for them to learn about helping out others, in this case, being the veterans in need.

My first role in REI was going through a couple of those "guru" programs, which, obviously, did not lead me anywhere. I was told I would be able to get help along the way, but the help was general, vague, and not applicable to where I was at, especially given my limited finances, and the step by step to alternative financing wasn't clear.

My next foray into Real Estate came as a "Virtual Assistant" to other investors. I did various tasks, ranging from running comps and calculating ARV/FMV, to making short explainer videos about their business, or crowd funding endeavors.

Currently, my skills, as related to notes, would be in 2, main, areas. The first would be brokering, and performing due diligence:

• Crime summary of the property's location from Trulia (example).
• All the county tax information (usually from the assessors), including the city's info (eg, taxes).
• Comps and ARV/FMV, upon request, for those whose plans include taking possession of a property, and may want to sell it.
• Rent averages, for those whose plans include taking possession of a property, and may want to rent it.
• Title information from a local title company.
• General city stats (so they can have some ideas of the local market).

The other area, which can use some more guidance, is "crowd funding." The first, main area, as mentioned above, would be to the local tribes, and how to better use their funds. Others would include via social media, local networking groups, etc.

This is me, and my "why."