Find my own deal or partner with a seasoned investor?

[Brian Garrett]

I have spent the past 6 months or so educating myself on REI as much as possible primarily here on BP by listening to countless podcasts, posting tons on the forums, analyzing hypothetical deals, networking with other investors, realtors, wholesalers, lenders, contractors and everybody in between. I also have a close friend who did two flips during that time frame so I was able to pick his brain and watch that process through from start to finish. Now I'm ready to take action and start looking for my own first deal.

Here's my plan and what I'm ultimately looking to accomplish:

I was fortunate and disciplined enough to build up some savings through my previous business endeavors to have as working capital knowing one day I would go eventually go into REI.  That time is now.

My primary plan is to use the BRRRR strategy to ultimately build a portfolio of SFH's and MFR's. I feel this strategy will work best for me since I can continue to recycle my initial working capital over and over again which will allow me to scale faster.

I love the whole idea of rehabbing to force appreciation so that is another reason why I feel that strategy is best for me.

I also plan to do some flips to generate more working capital that can be used to buy more cash flowing rentals.

The end goal is to build a large REI portfolio which I'm now prepared to work full-time at to ensure that I succeed.

At 34 years old I'm also still young enough and naive enough to believe that I can do it.  If there's a will, there's a way!

With all of that being said:

Would you suggest that I start looking for my own deals or that I look to partner with a local seasoned investor on a deal or two first?  The value that I would provide to them would be via my capital, my time and my sweat equity that I'm willing to invest into the deal.  This would be in exchange for their experience, knowledge, resources, mentorship and project management.

Furthermore, keeping my goals in mind, if you were me would you use the initial capital to start off slow and leverage it among several different properties or would you be looking for a larger MFR right from the start?

I'm looking forwards to hearing your feedback.  I'm either ready to start hunting for deals or start hunting for partners.

One way or the other I'm done sitting on the sidelines!  Thank you in advance for your input and advice.