Limiting beliefs on where to begin

[Jordan Barnes]

There are so many paths to chose in REI. After you have educated yourself, listened to so many podcasts, read a ton of books and talked to multiple great investors it can be overwhelming on what direction to go. Which is precisely what my business partner and I are finding right now, which field to dive into. I think you can break it down into three questions that will give you a general direction, namely, what is your goal in REI? What part of REI interests you the most? What is your exit strategy? I am struggling the most with the second question, because are there are SO MANY strategies within REI that I think I would love.

My partner and I are both high income earners and live comfortably but we work a lot to support that lifestyle. Like many here, our goal is to be financially free and build wealth passively while spending more time with our families. We both love the business of real estate and want to grow an empire, leaving something of significance to our families. But we also enjoy working, or rather working for ourselves to build wealth. 

We have the opportunity to buy cash flowing multifamily properties in a highly appreciating area, Washington State, but then struggle to commit to a 4 plex or smaller or if we should just dive into 7+ unit complexes. I have always looked at mobile home parks as the golden goose of REI and we have a great contact that builds them professionally, which makes us hesitate to invest any money in MFHs if we are going to pursue something as big as building a park. Then from a true business point of view we both love the idea of self/RV storage, this seems more likely to be our exit strategy in 10+ years down the road.

Not sure if this is a post for suggestions, or to start open discussions but I feel like I cannot be the first investor in this position to struggle to make a decision like this and am curious if any of them are here with any guidance or advice. Hope everyone is enjoying the start to the new year! 

[Sherief Elbassuoni]

@Jordan Barnes, I like your three questions "what is your goal in REI? What part of REI interests you the most? What is your exit strategy?". There is no one strategy/interest that fits or appeals to all investors. REI has many avenues and each one of them has its plus and minuses.

For example, mobile home parks (MHP) are good because most cities are not allowing new mobile home parks construction. This kind of scarcity keeps the value of the MHP. Many MHP also targets the B- or C tenants who can not afford more expensive apartments, which will keep the demand pretty high and vacancies low.

Multifamily, you get the benefit of scaling. You have one roof/one main water/one main sewer/... for many apartments. The downside may be the pretty steep purchase price.

Single-family with a house hack, ADU, DADU has a lot of Plus like being relatively cheap, low money down, favorable loan terms,.... but on the long term, not a lot of investors want to have 50+ single families. Most investors would prefer to consolidate all of these units into a smaller number of apartment complexes.

I think having a favorite strategy or investing vehicle (Apartment complex/Mobile Home Parks/RV parks/Storage/....) is good, but I will also be open for diversifying and invest in more than one field.