New to REI and BiggerPockets - Bay City, Michigan

[Nathan Markey]

Hi all - I'm new to Real Estate Investing and the BiggerPockets brand/community.

My wife and I are in our early 40's and we are located in Bay City, Michigan although we don't yet have any properties.  Ideally, I'd like property that is outside of our area so that we have to learn how to manage from a distance (and be less hands-on for any day-to-day issues).  That said, since we have no experience yet, we might be willing to do the learning closer to home.

Our main goal is to have investments that provide cashflow - our short term goal is to get at least one property with rental income.  Longerterm we want to replace our W-2 incomes entirely so that we have the freedom to stop working (I imagine this is a very common desire/goal for this community)!

I've been learning about lots of different passive income possibilities and real estate seemed like the one that is most approachable and that we're most comfortable with.  I know it's not necessarily 'passive', but I'm focusing more on investing in cashflowing assets so that I can trade money for money vs. time for money as much as possible.  Some of my friends have suggested BiggerPockets, so here I am!

Here's what we (think we) are interested in: Long term rentals for single-family or dual-family homes, buy and hold (i.e., cashflow vs. equity/growth), lower risk (we're okay with slower progress for now), ultimately want to partner with property managers so we can be more hands off.  We don't have a lot of extra time right now, but have capital we've saved so we skew more towards hiring out bits of the work (e.g., rehab) vs. putting in a lot of the sweat equity.  That said, since we haven't truly gotten started, we're open to different strategies as we learn.

If anyone is aware of Real Estate Investing communities (e.g., meetups) in the Bay City, Saginaw, Midland Michigan area I'd be very interested to connect!

+Nathan