Best Markets and Strategies for Financial Independence

[Matthew Vedder]

Hi All,

I am brand new to real estate investment. My goal is to reach Financial Independence as soon as possible. I plan to use real estate to reach the necessary amount of cash flow and use index funds as my vehicle for appreciation. I will need about $2500 per month in post tax passive income in order to achieve this.  Is it possible to do this in 5 years? I am currently saving between $4.5k and $5k per month from my salary. I will pay off my student loans by March and then begin saving towards a down payment. 

So far I have read Retire Early with Real Estate by Chad Caron and Long Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene. I loved both of these books, but still feel at a loss for where to start. Carson's book convinced me that the fastest way to become financially independent is through real estate, not index funds. It also provided plenty of case studies that put my goals into context and made them seem achievable. Greene's book gave tons of practical advice on building teams in a given area to buy, rehab, and rent houses. However, I still don't feel that I have the skills to find the best markets to start out in. What are the best books or other resources for learning how to find the best markets? I currently live in Boston, so investing in my backyard is off the table.

My main questions to the community are:

1. What are the best markets to begin a real estate investing portfolio in 2022? (Give the newbies some fish)

2. What are the best resources for learning how to find and evaluate markets? (Teach them how to fish)

3. Experienced investors: What would you do in my shoes? How quickly could you reach $2,500/month in cash flow with a savings rate of $4.5k-$5k per month? How would you do it?

Thank you!

Matthew