Starting Financial Situation

[Austin W.]

Long time reader, first time poster.

I wanted to see some of the other people's starting financial situation and what their immediate goals were.

I'm currently 25 and have been long interested in getting into Real Estate investing. I have a pretty large commission check ($30k for me is large) that will be coming in April and would like to put that to good use rather than blow it in Vegas.

It seems that in my area (North Dallas) finding a property to flip are far and few between. However, I have found some properties that from the surface, look to return a pretty decent cash flow.

Anyways... what are some of the starting situations you experienced, and what were your immediate goals?