​Dear Experts. Please read. Please help?

[Ford Smith]

Dear Experts. Please read. Please help.

My wife and I need sincere, honest, hard-truth advice from a real RE expert. Someone that can truly point us in the right direction without anything to gain.

Any advice or feedback would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Our Situation:

My wife and I have dreamed of owning a home to call our own and start a family. Like most people, we also dream of owning rentals properties, having financial freedom, and enjoying the finer things in life. Our current situation is very discouraging and at times seems hopeless. We’ve tried several different things but have only gotten older and have yet to get ahead. I’m 30 and she is 29.

Combined, my wife and I have over $180,000 of college loan debt. Mostly private. Several have adjustable interests rates maxed at 12%. Combined we pay over $2000 a month in college loans alone (not including the one car we share, rent, and food). We do not have any credit card debt. We’ve missed a couple payments in the past from being in-between jobs and, as a result, her credit is around 580 and mine is around 640. We do not come from a wealthy family and every member of our family is trying to survive in their respective manner. They are unable to help.

We have been unable to refi to lower rates due to credit and lack of a co-signer. I’ve spent hours researching all the ways to solve our college-loan problem with little success. Most of the advice is the same. Much of it is from lenders trying to refi to terms that do not favor us but get them paid a few points for restructuring our debt.

We are not doctors, lawyers, or any other professional that justifies this debt. She works in HR and I’ve worked in various sales roles as 1099. I understand RE Wholesaling and have taken the actions to start. However, after our monthly expenses, we do not have a budget (Mailers/ Adwords) to be competitive with the 1,000s of other people trying to do it in almost every market.

Because she is the only W2 employee, with bad credit, and I do not have 2 years of consistent income as an independent contractor, it makes it very hard to get approved for anything. We live paycheck to paycheck and rarely have anything left over for savings. This makes it very hard to invest or start a business. We see opportunities every day that seem out of reach because of our situation. Real Estate is one of the things we truly wish we could do.

I have a bookshelf full of the best books on success, mindset, wealth, and real estate. I have read most. At times, I get super excited and try things but then reality sets in, or a financial hurdle hits us, and we are back to where we started.

Here are our main questions:

• How can we buy a house and start building equity instead of paying rent?
• How can we start owning rental properties and accomplish our dreams?
• How can we get rid of our debt, responsibly?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.