How I got started really investing in Real Estate

[Troy Forney]

I wanted to take some time to tell my story to BiggerPockets about BiggerPockets. Around 2014 I was considering buying the last remaining parter out of a single family home rental that we had owned since 2007.  Like many people we decided to flip a house and got caught in the crash. So three of us owned a single family home. We had owned a few other properties over the years and had sold them with modest profits. My wife and I had been putting a lot of money into our retirement plans and I was very disappointed in the 7% we were averaging. You might say I was looking for “answers”. 

I did an appraisal for a guy name Jim Carlson. He had said this was a rental property and I told him I was considering getting into real estate investing more. He proceeded for the next 45 minutes during the inspection, about how he acquired 40 plus properties. He would explain and say then we used to BRRR method or debt snowball to pay them down. He would say you know what that is?? I would so no. How about the 50% rule or the 2% rule, 70% or 1% rule. I would say no. He said, you have to know what you are doing if your going to invest. Go to BiggerPockets and learn. By the way I used to be a moderator for BiggerPockets. I then preceded to buy houses like crazy over the next few years. We now have 4 sfrs and 2 duplexes that are cash flowing well with less than 50% LTV. We sold 3 as flips that were not going to rent for enough in my eyes. Looking back I wish I would have kept them. During the acquisition I would remember our conversation and play it back in my head and looking up terms and rules on BiggerPockets.

Looking back at that meeting of Jim it was like the universe was definitely telling me something. It was really a turning point in my investing career. I can’t thank Jim enough. I have left him a couple messages over the years thanking him and telling him of my progress. I feel truly blessed to have Jim that day and learning of BiggerPockets.  Thank you both for changing our lives!