Rookie Real Estate Investor - Taking My First Steps

[John Daniel]

For a few years now I have been interested in investing in real estate. From an oddly young age, I've always had the mindset to acquire as many assets as possible and limit wasteful spending on liabilities. When I entered college 5 years ago, something didn't sit well with me knowing I was paying over $10K a year to live in a dorm room. So after my first freshman year, I found a 3 bedroom townhouse, got my parents to purchase it, lived in one bedroom, and rented out the other two bedrooms to some buddies of mine. Now about four years later, I look at that as a great deal for my parents: I was able to live basically for free, they still collect passive rental income from new tenants to this date, and have built significant equity into the property. 

Currently, I am a 22-year-old structural engineer who recently moved to Kansas City for a great job out of college for a big construction-engineering company. I want to build a portfolio of rental properties as a way to build passive income for myself and the future I am envisioning. My barrier so far has been my off-and-on focus on actually learning and taking action towards my real estate goals. Last night I finished @Brandon Turner & Joshua Dorkin's BiggerPockets book: How To Invest In Real Estate - The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started, and this book truly has taught me so much and given me actionable steps that I will take to pursue my real estate goals. I can't praise this book enough, especially for young people who want to get into real estate but don't take the next steps because of self-doubt regarding success and failure. My biggest takeaway other than learning a wealth of information regarding the real estate industry was that none of these currently successful real estate investors had it all figured out when they were starting out either! They did the proper planning (sometimes) and just went for it. 

My current goal is to close on a duplex, triplex, or quadruplex in the Kansas City area before my lease being up this summer. I can't wait for this adventure, to connect with more individuals in the area, and continue to learn as I start my journey in the real estate world! 

P.S. I hate reading and can't tell you the last book I read, yet I finished this book in less than two weeks... 11/10 I recommend this book for everyone just getting started in real estate!