Adventure of 20 something real estate investor

[Erik Williamson]

My career in real estate investing started with buying a duplex in a c area in Dallas Texas. I remembering my friend doing the mortgage and I gave $5000 for the down payment that borrowed as a personal loan. The tenants we got were horrible damaging the place and not paying rent. Then I bought 10 houses in Indianapolis Indiana from a wholesaler on my personal credit in c class area. I remember the property manager taking personal cuts from fixing my property so I learned to have a handyman to do most of the repairs and that save me lots of money. Then the 2008 market crash happen and I lost it all and went bankrupt. Then I learn a valuable lesson do not ever do personal guarantee on real estate investments. I learned a lot and then I had investors approaching me to do deals with me. I felt so depressed after losing all my property I didn't want to lose investor money. Looking back 7 years now that was the worst mistake I made is denying investors to buy property because they believed in my integrity and how I was able to buy 10 houses no money down with 25k cash back. Now I am starting over again and excited for the future., I just want to start with small deals and find it for investors for a fee so I can eventually get into apartment investing which is what I really want to do. My wife is a property manager for 3 years now and knows how to manage 200+ units. I just want to figure out where can I make 10k in real estate so I can my buy and hold strategy to retire in my 40's. I am 31 now and it seems like a long road ahead. I learned a lot failing and I want to do real estate investing the full time because I had the most fun in life holding real estate an doing deals. Any input would be useful.