Introduction - Aspiring Investor

[Justin Williams]

Hi everyone! I am brand new to the world of real estate investing and am excited to get started and connect with like-minded people! If you don't feel like reading my life story, feel free to scroll down and just check out my first deal, my first offer ever was just accepted and the wife and I are over the moon! A bit about me:

My name is Justin Williams. I am 28 years old, married with five four-legged children. I live in New Mexico. Our household income is about $13k monthly after taxes and payroll deductions (health insurance, 401(k), etc.)

My wife and I have never been particularly fiscally responsible, although we live a fairly simple life. We do have debt that we are currently paying off which amounts to about $6k per month, and we live on about $3k per month. This leaves us $4k per month that we have been absolutely wasting.

My employer offers a very generous 401(k) plan with a 6% match and a 3.5% non-elective contribution. For years, we thought that we were doing well in our financial planning because we put all of our retirement money into a high-yield S&P-500 index fund and got a better rate of return than "normal" people who didn't even look at their money. We have achieved our current level of income very recently, within the last few months - we were making pretty much just enough to pay our debts before that.

Now that we have a bit more disposable income, I started looking around at different investment vehicles for retirement about a month ago with the goal of retiring by age 40 (in 12 years). After discovering Brandon and the rest of the BiggerPockets crew, it's like a lightbulb went off above my head! I realized that I absolutely hate my job, and even though my wife loves her job, it's not what we want to define our lives!

I don't want my current employer to be brought up at my funeral. I don't want that to be my legacy, I want to have the freedom to make a real difference in the world and do meaningful things while also not being financially tethered to someone who is making more than I am off my labor! Even though retiring by 40 is an exceptionally early goal (or so I thought), we have realized that we can move that up WAY quicker by leveraging the fact that we have so much more disposable income than we need.

After attending a BiggerPockets webinar, watching hours of YouTube videos and researching online, I have decided to take the plunge and buy my first rental property. I am purchasing a triplex in an Illinois town about an hour from Chicago. See the attached image if you'd like to give some feedback. Our offer was accepted on the property for asking price ($105k with 25% down which I am taking a low-interest 401(k) loan for). The comprehensive home inspection will take place next week, but preliminary accounts say that the home is in excellent condition and will need no repairs. Gross rent is $1750 for all three units, and it has an unfinished basement that is plumbed and can eventually be converted to a fourth unit. It seems like an excellent deal.

I'm excited to buy more property as I pay down my debt, and I'll likely be reading some of Brandon's book's soon as well! I am confident that my wife and I can retire on a reasonable income within 3-4 years through investing in real estate since our 9-5 jobs provide an exceptional amount of capital as long as we don't waste it. Thank you so much for reading, and thanks in advance for helping me with dumb questions along the way! I'm a newbie here but already love the community. Take care!

[Jonathan Klemm]

@Justin Williams - Welcome to BiggerPockets and congrats on preparing yourself to jump into the Chicago real estate space.

I was totally in the same boat as you when I found real estate and realized this whole different world that not all of our exposed to until we find it.  Your analysis overall looks good but just wanted to point out a couple of things I noticed.  1.  I don't t see anything in for utilities.  You'll likely have to cover common area electricity and all of the water (typical for Chicago may be not your case).  2.  Your taxes seem pretty low if I did my math right 156x12 = $1,872 for the year.  Could be right but thought it was worth bringing up.

What suburb of Chicago is this property located in?  Being that you are an out-of-state investor I am happy to connect and see how we might be able to help.