Another Newbie Spinning Their Wheels

[Ethan Bennett]

I need some help/clarity/guidance/or tough love. Prepare for a little long winded ramble. 

I've been listening to Bigger Pockets for several years now but have yet to purchase my first investment. I know a little about a lot of investment strategies and every podcast I listen to I feel like I get "shiny object syndrome" and spend another week trying to learn about another strategy. 

SFH, small mutli, MHPs, wholesaling, self storage, land flipping, commercial, etc

I've recently talked to a hard money lender and gotten preapproved for a HML. I've always been a fan of the BRRRR strategy but lately I see that BRRRR can apply to ANY investment class. I live in a more suburban area about an hour north of Atlanta, GA with several potential areas I would invest with populations in the 50k-100k range.

I'm in outside sales so have some time and schedule flexibility. I don't hate my job but would rather be my own boss a lot sooner than later. I know the answer is to just take action but in today's market and with what all is going on, I hate to say it but I don't want to waste my time at something that is not going to work, IE if I went all in on wholesaling and nobody is buying properties or all in on self storage and my market is saturated. 

Essentially I'm just looking for a lifeline to phone a friend. About to close on the sell of our first home that we renovated ourselves and will make a small profit. I love real estate as a whole because there are SO many strategies, but I think about Brandon's building bridges analogy and know that I need to just figure something out and stick with it, then I can try something else. 

[Adrienne Wilkins]

@Ethan Bennett

I researched a lot of topics before I got started as well (not for years but for months), and here’s some very important things I had to consider to figure out which path to take:

- How much can I afford to spend?

- After I spend X$, will I be ok with what I have left (amount of cash left, monthly bill left, etc.)?

- What kind of returns do I want to see; Do I want higher monthly income or longer term equity?

- What’s in my local area, and can I afford what’s in my local area for secondary property?

- What strategies are currently being executed in my local area / in the area I’d like to invest in?

- How much time & energy is required to execute a given strategy well, and can I spare that time & energy right now?

Answering these questions helped me narrow down my realistic interests A LOT. I eliminated flips & short term rentals for the time being because my local area is expensive. House hacking wouldn’t work for my family at this point. I really liked the idea of mobile homes & mobile home park investing because of the low entry cost but there isn’t really a market for that in my area and what is here is very expensive. Most importantly I have a full time, busy job that I actually enjoy and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. All that being said, I close on a turnkey, long term rental out of state this month, ~$350/month return.