What peaked you interest in REI? How did you get started? How did you finance your first deal?

[Lisa Holloway]

I've had an interest in investing for quite some time. I've bought a rental home with a 80/20 mortgage loan, but then lost both my primary residence and the rental due to medical conditions and making some decisions that I should not have made, like moving family into the home that I should not have.

Now, I'm interested again, because I want to move away from the 'cubicle life', but feel that I'm lacking the courage to 'make the move' for fear of the risks and challenges that come along with REI. I am interested in partnering with someone (being mentored), but don't really know how to go about asking. I currently work during the day and am the primary breadwinner. I have evenings and weekends available and am willing to take some vacation/sick days from work to accomplish goals until I'm able to make the break from the job a permanent one.

I currently am limited on out of pocket funding, but do have some knowledge and ideas on how to obtain funding.

So I thought I would ask others out here in the BiggerPockets land some questions on how you got started, what got you interested in REI and how did you finance your first REI transactions?