Oklahoma City Newbie

[Dan S.]

Hello, Yet another accidental landlord turned Real Estate Wantrepreneur here! Perhaps that is a bit dramatic, though I feel as such during this stage in our timeline. Over a year ago I found myself about to marry which brought on not only a change in life but also a change in residence. Having roughly twelve years remaining on a fifteen year mortgage, we decided to turn this property into a rental. We successfully closed the first twelve month lease, occupied by tenants that had been previously displaced by a tornado. We are now into a second set of tenants on a new lease and everything remains positive to date. The decision to rent this property was based on several factors. One of those being that I'm passionate about reaching a level of financial independence that affords my family choices. Another being that my wife grew up in a family that owned and managed residential property. She too has the desire to begin this same journey and we're committed to learning more. Presently, we are working to achieve various personal goals which dictate our not taking any further real estate action for approximately two to three years. Hence the wantrepreneur reference as we are spending this time learning what it is we can do to improve our future experiences. Ultimately, we will relocate to a new personal residence and the current home we occupy now will become rental property number two. Our short term goal is to build a portfolio consisting of ten investment properties using a buy and hold strategy. That in itself seems daunting at this stage, though it compounds as we desire to do this without leveraging ourselves heavily. I'm new to the forums, as I hope to continue learning above what the podcasts have already offered. Here we go! -Dan

[Rhett Tullis]

sounds like a good plan to me.  I'm in okc and own 9 rentals myself free and clear.  been doing buy and hold for some time.  I like your plan.  Many folks on here will say you need to leverage other folks money to really turn a profit and I am sure there is some truth in it but it really comes down to your lifestyle, stress level and long term goals.  best of luck and let me know if I can help in any way.