First time poster, not first time Investor from SE WI

[Ray Neal]

After more than a year of religiously reading BP and checking up on recent posts more times a day than your typical social networker checks Twitter or Facebook, I have found the time to introduce myself.

My name is Ray, I am 26 years old and I live and operate in SE WI. I began in RE roughly a year and a half ago after leaving my job in the automotive industry. I could no longer work for others.

I rehabbed my first house last February with the help of a friend I hired half way through the project. He had little experience, but was useful as a second pair of hands. I sold that house and did quite well. I had already had my first duplex under contract, and closed shortly after selling my first rehab.

Several rehabs and my own crew of employees later I began focusing more heavily on buy and hold property. I could sense the change in the market beginning to occur. I did not want to miss this opportunistic market and knew there was no way I could ever go back to a 9 to 5. That is when I began focusing more on rental property.

Here I sit this evening looking back on what has been done in this short amount of time. I just closed on my eighth free and clear property today. I have six duplexes and two single families. I have closed two other duplexes using a private lender parter. He carries 60 month notes at 9%, no money down and no points in exchange for a first mortgage. True 100% funding.

My RE agent has his WI brokers license and is now my business partner; we are in the process of finding office space which will be the brick and mortar location of his RE business, as well as our joint ventures together. It will also serve as a physical location for my buy and hold ventures. Together, we will begin doing rehabs using my long term capitol investor, and have several good contacts for further short term funding that we are negotiating.

I am working on trying to find the excitement I once had. The thrill of closing new deals is not what it once was, it is now the thrill of the chase. I would not trade what I am doing for anything.

In closing, I hope that this post does not come off as gloating. Many of the vets here have been a great inspiration to me, without even knowing. I hope this will inspire new investors to work hard and diligently. By no means am I saying to quit your day job and jump in at 400mph like I have done. My options at the time were few. Good things do not come to those who wait. When you tell yourself you need to succeed as badly as you need to breathe, then you will succeed.

Ray