New investor Discouraged

[Ron Burgundy]

Hi everyone,

I'm completely new to real estate investing. Only properties I have had before were personal residences. I want to start off in MFH as the small cash flow on SFH is not enough to make any kind of impact to the income I'm already earning from my full time job.

Ideally I want a 5-10 unit MFH in Houston metro that needs rehab, but realize that is next to impossible in my price range, so I'm looking all across Texas, too. I haven't found a deal that makes sense yet, and I know it will be hard to do with the limited resources at my disposal. It seems like there is a huge amount of competition. 

Right now I only have $80-$85K available to invest, with most of that being cash. I've got a realtor lined up as well as some financing. 

Not sure what to do from here. My goal is to quit my full time job in a few years, but feeling very discouraged that won't happen. 

Any guidance, wisdom, input would definitely be appreciated. Thank you. 

[Joel Owens]

We all go through emotionally ups and down regardless of level of success. There are just those who pretend they do not have those feelings and then those who are strong enough to talk about it.

I used to be so poor my diet was Ramen noodles all week long. I used to look at a loaf of bread as a 1 week meal.

When my dad died in a car wreck suddenly when I was 16 he did not leave us much to survive on. The roof was rotted out so I was in the kitchen on a ladder at 16 years of age with buckets of water coming into the kitchen from a storm at 2 in the morning and I kept pouring them into the sink. I then had to spend 4 days after each day repairing an 8 foot section. The foundation of the house was leaking also in basement at the corner.  

I told myself the one thing I will never do in life is quit. If you quit you might miss the good opportunities  that come by. 

It seems really tough to break free in life and be financially free because IT IS. You have to be driven and have a passion. Some people kind of want it and others dream about it everyday and take small steps that become big steps and eventually you look back and go this is amazing.

It's weird in a way when you are not in the rat race anymore and are on the outside looking in.