Newbie from Lincoln, Nebraska

[David Wooten]

Greetings All!!

Name's David Wooten.  I'm active duty military, have been for 15 years.  Married for 15 years.  Five kids (number six due in March).  Looking to get -really- get started in the Real Estate business.

A number of years ago, my wife and I paid a good sum of money for real estate lessons and such but in the end, didn't completely follow through with it all.  I think most of the problem for me was that back then, I wasn't patient and I allowed myself to be distracted by computer games and other junk.  As I close in on my retirement (here in five years), I'm realizing more and more that I need to line something up for when that day comes.

I've started looking into a college degree as well, but thought that I should really give this real estate thing a solid commital and run with it.

My initial interests in real estate, I think, are short sales.  We don't have the starting capital do really for anything overly pricey.  I am open to good advice though.

I have no real estate experience except for buying my house, which seemed to be a good buy at the time, but 10 years later, hasn't appreciated as much as I had hoped it would. 

I came upon BiggerPockets through some searches on short sales and trying to research Freedom Mentors.

Think that's about it.

I'm looking forward to learning and the future!!

[Kerry Baird]

Welcome!  Videmus Omnia~  We're a military family, as well.  DH has 22 years in; I did 10 before getting out to be Mom.  This also led to me starting out in RE to make up my salary.  Our first house was purchased in the UK, our second in AZ, both owner occupied.  Then we started teaching the CashFlow game and soon began a marketing campaign...we bought a number of pre-foreclosures, a probate and did one short sale.  The marketing brought a number of deals: some were fix-and-flips, some were buy-and-holds.  As the calls were starting to roll in from the marketing, we were relocated to the UK again.  In the UK, we bought another owner occupied house.  At that point we realized that we'd need to buy at a distance in order to keep the momentum going, so we bought 3 houses at a distance, two units in TX and one in FL.  We just PCSd to FL and are looking to ramp up again.  

All that said, your W-2 income will serve you well, as will your VA loan. We have fixed up every house we have lived in and moved to take advantage of the tax benefits to military (can obtain tax-free gains from an owner occupied house that you live in for 2 out of 10 years, rather than the 5 that civilians get). Also, we have saved up down-payment funds by saving tax-free income on deployments, or using the 10% interest program for deployed individuals, and have used tax refunds as down payment money. We've only used the VA once, and since both of us qualify, we will move again after a year in order to use the VA loan again.

Lastly, I have a number of houses around Goodfellow, rented to fellow AF.  I know how to set the rents based upon BAH (for E-5 rank), how to go through the chain of command to collect rents, etc.  And I set up my paperwork and file folders similar to at work, and created checklists and systems that were like those you already know for your workplace.  SO...read up on marketing, which in my opinion, is a great way to get started learning.  Set up a keyword alert here, and read.  The book that set up my systems best was Keller's Millionaire Real Estate Investor.  Keller has tables of how many houses to buy and at what speed in order to reach certain income or equity positions.  I've got that book highlighted in a rainbow of colors.  

There are so many resources here...dig deep~