New Investor - Active Duty - Overseas

[Matt Teegarden]

Good Morning BP!

My name is Matt and before anything else, I’m stoked to finally post this bio and share my intentions with you all.

I’m enlisted in the US Air Force. I’m an E-5 married to another enlisted military member and we are currently stationed overseas at Misawa Air Base, Japan. I work in the Command and Control career field. I am still unsure if the military is going to be my long term (20 year) plan but I’m here and making the most of it every day! I even started my own small-scale moving business here in Japan.

I’m young-ish (27) and extremely motivated to get started in real estate investing.

Throughout the last year or so, I’ve been doing a lot of research, (books, podcasts, YouTube) along with meeting face to face with several enlisted members with real estate experience, all in the name of procuring as much knowledge as possible before diving in head first to our first property.

We are primarily interested in small multi-family housing in the near future with aspirations of scaling to commercial multi-family within the next 5-10 years.

I’d be very interested in learning more from investors who have experience investing in military towns, having military tenants, investing from overseas locations, and obviously, other enlisted (or officers) military members. I am passively involved in the ADPI (Active Duty Passive Income) community as well.

Currently, I do not have a particular market I want to pursue. We’re currently awaiting our next assignment notification and want to have that knowledge before buying.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I look forward to hearing from you and attending countless BP meetups in the future!

Thank you,

Matt Teegarden

[Doug Spence]

@Matt Teegarden Welcome to BP and congrats on taking steps to start your real estate journey. There are lots of active duty investors here on the forums with years of experience and knowledge. @David Pere @Joshua McMillion @Stuart Grazier to name a few. 

I recommend you begin with the end in mind. Where do you see you and your family 10, 20, 30 years from now? What does your day look like? Where are you living? What are your expenses like? What motivates you? Once you have a clear idea of where you want to be, you should start working backward and develop a roadmap that will get you there. Maybe you start with some smaller 1-4 unit properties and then work your way up to larger multifamily. Or may you just jump right into multifamily? 

I highly recommend joining a mastermind group so you can surround yourself (virtually and in-person) with like-minded people who you can network with, learn from, and who will hold you accountable. I joined the War Room mastermind last year and it was the single best decision I have made for my real estate endeavors. I've learned a lot, I've been challenged, I started a business, and I've been able to help others progress on their real estate journey. 

Feel free to reach out any time and keep us updated on your progress!