I want to hear about your journey!

[Sarah Bilbro]

Hi everybody, 

I'm a complete newbie to REI investing and am in the very beginning stages of 1) trying to gain as much REI knowledge as possible, 2) finding the right places to network and make as many connections as possible.

I don’t have a lot of capital, but I am a business owner so I do know how to market and what it takes to be successful. 

Am I foolish to think I can eventually find success in REI with little starting capital?

My question: What were your circumstances when you first started out? What were the first steps you took? Where are you now? Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently? 

I appreciate any feedback immensely. Thank you all in advance! 

[Corey Conklin]

@Sarah Bilbro I would suggest you start with understanding why you want to get into real estate.

Are you doing it because you saw others do it and get rich, so now you want to do it? 

Do you have a passion for finding deals, construction, design, or some other skill needed for real estate?

How will your real estate journey effect your current business and lifestyle?

I can say that everyone has a different reason that they got into real estate and I think it's critical to understand your why. Start asking yourself questions about why you want to do this and understand it will take work. Its often left out of the BP podcast how much work goes into building their RE portfolios. It's not as easy as buying a property and hiring a PM to take care of it for you.

You aren't a fool for thinking you can find success in REI, it can be had. You only become a fool if you think that you can put in minimum effort and expect maximum return.

I wasn't exactly sure why I wanted in RE other than I was sick of the so called financial advisors that manage your money taking a good fee to manage your money with poor results. I had a background in construction and management so I felt comfortable managing the business.

I put a ton of work into my 2nd rental property and it put a lot of strain on my life. It almost made me get out of REI. When the eventual tenant and her mother came and toured the place I'll never forget how happy her mother was when she saw the house, it almost brought her to tears. In my area there are a ton of slumlords and really awful houses so they were ecstatic when they saw the house. All of the hard work I put in gave someone a safe place to live, that made everything my family and I went through worth it.

This experience gave me my 'why'. When I'm going through the hard times of REI I reflect on that moment and it brings clarity to why I'm doing it.