Identifiying the best strategy for long term wealth creation...

[Jason Stephens]

I've been following this forum, as well as the BP Podcast for quite some time and have been toying with the idae of doing real estate investing since well before the 08' crash. 

Some background:

- I am 32 years old
- Live on Long Island, NY
- Business Owner
- Bought existing home 2 years ago for $430k, and it was appraised at $550k earlier this year. We have tapped a $50k HELOC to do renovations.
- Married with a 15 month old daughter

I am looking to accumulate wealth over the course of several years by leveraging my retirement savings. I currently have 50-55k in my IRA, and my wife has another 17k or so in her old 401K.

Goals:
- Build a portfollio of rentals so I have over $1,000,000 in assets as a retirement plan. As a small business owner, I need to make sure that we have assets that we can leverage in the future as we don't get a 401k. 

- Grow cashflow on properties so we eventually have $10,000 + per month in income.

- In addition to buy / hold, we'd also like to do several flips  per year to build wealth and also pay down debt (student loans, etc). I figure once these flips paydown existing debt we can then begin to  leverage the profit from flips to speed up the process of aquiring buy/hold properties. 

I'd like to also build my portfolio in my remote area so I can monitor and stay on top of  the properties.  The home prices have a floor of around $300k in the area for a 3bd, 2 bath. 

With all of this being said, what is the best strategy to accomplish my goals if the only assets available to invest are the retirement funds that we have accumulated.  If I use 5% for a down payment on a $300,000 house that produces $200 a month in cashflow, how do I get from point A to B without burning all of my available cash for investing? How do I continually add more money to the pot in order to grow my portfolio?

Thoughts? Opinions? 

[Steve Vaughan]

4 green houses, 1 red hotel. Be a sleuth for buying a house below market value that will cash-flow either off the bat or with some value-add.  Let everyone know you are looking to buy a rental.   When driving around, look for tired properties with high grass and/or for rent signs. Jot down the address, (or just call if a sign) look up the owner online at your county assessor's site and send them a quick note or postcard.  If vacant, leave a note on the door.   

Just a couple ideas.  Entire books are written to answer your question.  Good luck there @Jason Stephens!