New member from Oahu/Hawaii

[Claudia W.]

Aloha everyone,

My husband and I currently live in Hawaii and are looking to get started in REI soon. Our strategy is to start out with rehabbing houses at first to increase our financial resources and then eventually transition to buy and holds. We've established a 10 year plan that should enable us to have acquired enough properties to be financially independent enough to where we can travel the world! We're currently still in the education phase of our investing career and are reading books, blogs and listening to the podcast every day on our way to work.

Here's a little bit about our background: we bought our first house in Alabama (before we knew anything about REI). Our agent then sold us on how it would make for a great investment property once we move and just rent it out (the good old rent-mortgage=profit). Needless to say, we're not making money on this, the market (house values and rents alike) are steadily going down and now we can't even sell it because we're underwater - unless any of you have a creative solution for us?

Moving on to our next 'deal'. We bought our 3/2 home in Hawaii using the VA loan again, as a short sale this time) but didn't really negotiate 'a deal'. Luckily, it has been appreciating quickly and we're looking to sell it within the next year.

About 6 months ago we found BP, ironically while researching reviews on certain gurus that came to town. While the 3 day seminar gave us the final push and motivation to seriously consider real estate, we're now very happy that we didn't fork over the tens of thousands for 'advanced training'. BP blog posts, the forums and of course the podcast are amazing resources and we're soaking up as much information as we can :)  I'm looking forward to being a part of this great community and learn from and grow with it! 

P.S. Our next step will be to buy a duplex/triplex/fourplex using the VA loan again once we moved back to the mainland. We then plan on living in it for 2 years while renting out the other units. This should give us a nice start into becoming long term buy and hold investors, all while hopefully living rent free.