Getting Started in REI

[Grant Farrington]

Hello all, My fiance and I have both become quite captivated by real estate investing. We really want to make a career of it, but are trying to figure out how to do that. She likes the idea of flipping, whereas I favor buy and hold. In practicing compromise, we came up with a plan. We would greatly appreciate any advice, feedback, or constructive criticism anyone can offer. 
Here's our idea... We want to be able to live off of the cash flow from rental properties within 6-8 years. To do that we want to start by flipping houses. Our goal is to flip at least one house a month for about 5 years. We hope to make an average of at least $10,000 per flip. At the end of 5 years we want to use the profits from flipping to purchase rental properties outright. Depending on how much cash flow the propertues produce, we may flip more houses to save up for additional properties as well until we can live off the cash flow. 
So, does this seem realistic? We are eager, excited, committed, and have great work ethic and money management. Also, we are getting married in May and then moving from Miami, but we don't know where to yet. Our plan is to move to a new location by July, and spend 6 months working and learning the local market before investing. 

[Arpan Patel]

One house a month is not realistic starting out. I would say try to flip two houses for the year is a good first year goal unless you have a ton of management background or you take on a partner who has done this before. I have been in the business for quite some time and even we are just trying to get to the point now that we can do one a month. Also, you should probably look at making more per deal because 10k can get swallowed up very quickly if anything small comes up. We aim for 40 and usually get 30 or so. I also wouldn't purchase properties outright because it diminishes your cash on cash return, limits your tax deductions, and make you a larger target for more lawsuits because of the high equity positions; additionally, I think you should take advantage of the interest rate environment now while they are lower. Who knows where they will end up in 5 years especially as Yellen seeks to raise rates this year. I hope that helps