Too big, Too fast?

[DJ Cummins]

Good morning all,
So I am on this site every single day, and I love it. I haven’t been posting anything because I have been trying to contain my excitement about this whole process. We (my wife and I) had decided to wait until after the first of the year to purchase our first piece or rental property. I am going to be cashing in a couple of stocks that have done well, and for tax purposes, we decided to hold off until the first of the year before cashing them in. They aren’t my retirement; these stocks were just a fun hobby instead of heading down to the riverboat casino all the time. Anyway, it is about time to start looking!

My question is how fast is too fast to buy additional real estate? How quickly did you purchase your second property? Our goal is to buy 2, possibly 3 properties this year. Does that seem crazy, or is that doable for a new investor? We will be managing the properties ourselves for now. I realize I am putting the horse before the cart asking about buying a second property when we haven’t bought the first yet…I am just wanting to see how people with success have done this. I understand that finding the right deal(s) is a key, and not over-extending ourselves. I am just curious on some suggestions for how fast to start from the beginning. I have read approximately a dozen books and hundreds of BP forum posts. I would just like to hear some personal stories here regarding how quickly you moved after your first purchase. We do not plan on taking any profits from the rentals, we are just going to keep re-investing every bit we can towards the next purchase(s).

The 20% down isn’t really the issue for our second purchase, I am just wondering about the experience required with being a landlord. We have looked at a few properties, and are getting ready to look at a few more in the coming weeks.

I am not sure if I am asking for someone to slow me down, or someone to tell me that full speed ahead is ok. Just looking for some personal success (or failure) stories with starting out. I really appreciate it!

DJ Cummins