Complete Noobie from Oceanside, California

[Jimmy Watson]

Hey everyone!  My name's Jimmy, and I'm a Marine EOD Tech stationed at Camp Pendleton, California.  I'm originally from Michigan, but luckily moved somewhere a bit warmer to avoid the miserable winters that plague the midwest.  

I'm here on Bigger Pockets because I've got about 10K saved up, and no idea what to do with it.  I know that's not much, but I'm hoping it's enough to get my foot in the door.  I've thought about real estate for a number of years, but frankly have no idea of where to start.  I have zero real estate experience.  

My Goals:

To purchase a small rental property (to start) and rent it out to gain a little bit of extra income.  I've been looking at apartments in Niceville, Florida because I lived there for a while and absolutely loved the area.    I obviously would have to hire a middle-man to handle all of the little things, seeing as I live in California.  I would also fly to Florida around Christmas time to check out the property I'm interested in.  

Eventually, if my first property does very well, I would love to purchase more property and let it grow from there.  I just need a little push in the right direction!  

Thanks everybody,

-Jimmy Watson

[Elizabeth Colegrove]

Welcome to Biggerpockets

My husband is active duty Navy. We are stationed at NAS Lemoore. We are buy and hold investors. Are you required to live on base? Have you thought about buying a personal property (foreclosure, shortsales, etc) and renting out the rooms in your house to ship mates? If you buy a great single family houses that who's rent will cover you mortgage and a margin when you leave. Than you can get into the deal with 0 down by using your va loan. If you rent out the rooms than you can cover your costs and continue savings! Plus you now have a rental.

If you buy a pure rental you have to put 20% down. On the other hand you can split your va loan. So whatever you don't use in California, up to your entitlement you can use again somewhere else. we got two loans out of my husbands va. Than after you have used up your va you can buy a personal using 5% down conventional. 

We got started by buying personal properties and turning them into rentals when we were transferred. We also bought pure investments as it made sense. Our goal is to use the cash-flow to permenatly retire when my husband is eligible for a pension.

  I talk alot about our strategy, suggestions, va loans, mortgages, and lots of other great articles on my blog found in my signature. I also have a couple of free ebooks coming out including one about self managing. If you like the blog I highly recommend you sign up for the free newsletter. As it will have tons of great stuff.

Good Luck! The military's transient nature is an amazing asset. It has allowed us to truly follow our dream. 

If I can be of any help let me know :) Good Luck!