Starting Out In Real Estate

[Zachary R Beale]

Hello all,

My wife and I are about to start the next chapter in our lives. She will be finishing up her doctorate and finding a job and I will be finishing up my degree and getting a better paying job (hopefully) in the next 6 months. I've always wanted to get into real estate investing and always leaned towards short term rentals/ vacation rentals. The extra info in regards to me is that I get an extra 4k a month due to my prior service in the military. This money is what we have lived on while we were both in school. It will not go away, and it will not be needed in our daily lives, so I am reaching out here to figure out what would be the best thing to do with the additional income. I don't want it to just sit in a savings account if there is something constructive I can do with it in the meantime.  If anyone has any ideas on what to do or what to look into, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Jonathan Greene]

Since you are both finishing programs, I would schedule the next year to be all learning, not trying to buy. Go to real estate investing meetups in your area, get to know local investors, read books and listen to podcasts together to figure out what you think you want to do the most and what will benefit you, depending on where you live, the most. You have VA benefits to use to house hack and beyond so you want to tap into those, but don't rush the buying process, focus on learning.