Investing in Western WA, How to retire in the next 25 years

[Kyle M Miller]

I'm a new initiate, looking to learn about what it takes to earn financial freedom in the next 25 years. My wife and I see real estate investing as the key to that, and we're hoping to get some advice and ideas from the community on what we should be doing to set ourselves up for success.

Background
I'm 29, and my wife is 27. Together, we make about $145k a year in Western Washington with our day jobs. We bought our first home (primary residence) in 2016, but that's the extent of our experience. Neither of us are in the real estate field, but we do have real estate agents in our family that guided us through the transaction. Our focus has been typical: pay down debt (education and consumer), invest in IRA, 401k, and save what we can. Our cash position could be better, but we're actively changing spending habits and focusing on cash flow in 2018.

Goals

• Overall: Earn financial freedom through real estate investments, be able to retire in 25 years (but still work because we want to)
• Buy our first investment property in the next 12 months

What we're doing

• Listening to BP podcasts
• Reading books from BP, as well as generalized books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad
• Strict budgeting
• Improving cash flow (refinancing our current home for lower payments, not being too aggressive with paying down debt, etc)
• Looking out for events in our area to network and educate ourselves (no luck yet...)

Ideas/Plans

• Get a real estate license for both educational purchases and so we can manage our own transactions
• Partner with likeminded friends on our first property to get the ball rolling; each couple saving up $30k+ in the next 12 months
• Focus on small single family / multi-family rental homes
• Keep our day jobs, real estate would be our side job

What do you wish others told you when you first started? What more can we do to set ourselves up for success? Are we doing the right things? How can we avoid obvious newbie mistakes?