Am I investing incorrectly?

[Joe T.]

So far I have purchased one SFH which has turned out excellent so far. I am now in the process of buying a second one, but for some reason I just feel like I'm not investing properly. It's not that my current rental isn't cash flowing or appreciating, it's the fact that I looked on the MLS, viewed 20 or so properties, did my dd, and ran the numbers. Everything I read makes it seem like people are buying these hidden deal properties that are off market and turn out to be excellent. My situation is different in that I am able to generate enough income from my job, that I can save up for the 20% down payment fairly quickly, and that will only increase with the more properties I have providing additional cash flow. My long term goals are to take on real estate investing full time, and move onto multi family and commercial buildings. I am still fairly young at 23, so I have a long time to figure it out, but I just feel like I could be doing better and decreasing the amount of time it takes before I could leave my job and do this full time. I'm located in San Antonio, and I prefer to have a higher quality of tenant and am not willing to go down in price to get cheaper properties that may have higher returns.

[Ozzy Smith]

There is no right or wrong way to do it if you get what you are expecting. You are willing to spend more per unit to have the peace of mind rather than higher returns and have the problems that come with them. You also have a job that takes away your time but affords you to buy the way that you do. Guys like me ( buying off market or creatively with huge returns) is not as easy as it usually seems to guys like you or how the gurus make it seem. The singular deal that gets done is usually pretty flawless with great terms but it probably took the same 20 offers that fell through. The guys (or girls) that are doing this repeatedly typically didn't just wake up one day and just have these deals fall in their laps. In my case I spent 8 years learning and negotiating deals before my first one actually went forward. Then I proceeded to buy 15 properties in the next 10 months with not my money. Some I bought off the MLS, some weren't even for sale and some of the deals fell in my lap. Even the ones that fell in my lap only happened bc I spent lots of $$ and lots of time on marketing and networking to get it to fall in my lap. I also probably pay a lot higher interest rate then you do and some of my creative financing methods keep me up very late because I have to juggle where my money is or have the possibility of loosing my house to an investor that lent me money on strict terms. Typically risk = reward. If you are unwilling to make big bucks in exchange for sleepless nights and sick stomachs then I'll answer your question with a question... Are you happy with your returns in direct correlation to your quality of life? If the answer is no then you need to decide what you are willing to sacrifice what you have to get what you want. If you are happy with your quality of life ( time, stress level, returns) then the answer is keep doing what you are doing... Everyone has an opinion on how to do it best but only you have to live with your decision.