Beginning my journey! How did you start yours?

[Tyler Harris]

What’s up, BP?

As somebody who’s very interested in purchasing rental property and looking to start the journey, I’m curious how you all fell into it and learned everything you have from the beginning? Did you have a mentor, family member, or did you just read up and go all in on your first property?

I’d kill to have somebody mentor me through the whole process. Don’t really have any friends or family that have dabbled in real estate so I’ve had to acquire most of my information through YouTube, Reddit, forums etc. which helped me purchase my first home last year! But I feel like it’s a different ball game when it comes to rental properties and more is at stake.

I just turned 29 and live in Oklahoma so everything is super cheap here! I just want to start out with a simple cheap SFH to get my feet wet! Maybe something around 100-125k. I have around 20k saved up and another 80k in other retirement stuff put back too. As of now, I'm just gunna keep saving and saving and learning as much as possible before finding the right deal, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your stories and any advice for someone starting out!

Thanks, everybody!

[Nathan Gesner]

Originally posted by @Tyler Harris:

What’s up, BP?
As somebody who’s very interested in purchasing rental property and looking to start the journey, I’m curious how you all fell into it and learned everything you have from the beginning? Did you have a mentor, family member, or did you just read up and go all in on your first property?

I’d kill to have somebody mentor me through the whole process. Don’t really have any friends or family that have dabbled in real estate so I’ve had to acquire most of my information through YouTube, Reddit, forums etc. which helped me purchase my first home last year! But I feel like it’s a different ball game when it comes to rental properties and more is at stake.

I just turned 29 and live in Oklahoma so everything is super cheap here! I just want to start out with a simple cheap SFH to get my feet wet! Maybe something around 100-125k. I have around 20k saved up and another 80k in other retirement stuff put back too. As of now, I'm just gunna keep saving and saving and learning as much as possible before finding the right deal, but in the meantime I'd love to hear your stories and any advice for someone starting out!

Thanks, everybody!

My father-in-law was in real estate but he didn't really tell me anything about it, except that he loved it. I watched him "work" less than four hours a day and he was completely debt free, paid for a couple kids to go to college, traveled several times a year, and seemed to have an easy life. I figured I could have a great life if I actually put in effort. I had bought/sold several houses by this time and my experience was that most real estate agents seemed to be just a step above used car salesmen. I had no interest in that, but I liked real estate, so I chose property management as my path because I have a knack for managing assets and would enjoy the steady income. It was a great choice! I've since learned that I am a good sales agent without being "salesy" and enjoy that, as well.

I was so busy learning and building my business that I was really just focused on making the business profitable. Once I felt my business was established, then I started dabbling more in sales and used that commission for investments. I bought my first property in March 2016 and have continued to learn and purchase with a "slow and steady" approach. By the end of March I will have 31 rentals and 157 storage units.

If I'm able to do it in a small town of 9,000 where the average home is over $250,000 then it's possible anywhere.