Newbie from South Charlotte, NC

[Joshua Lester]

Hello BiggerPockets.  My name is Josh Lester.  I'm wading into real estate investing and thought it was time to introduce myself here.  I've been a long time podcast listener and lurker here, but haven't engaged until now.  

I've been reading, researching, and running numbers for about two years and am just now jumping into the game.  This is a long term buy and hold plan to diversify further and help set up "early retirement" and enable us to focus more on entrepreneurial endeavors and less on my "day job".   We are hyper-savers and are growing more and more restless with lack of freedom and control over business decisions.  The writing is on the wall, its time to call the shots and do what we want, when we want.  We are working on establishing my wife's consulting business, real estate is the next step, and then likely buying some sort of business with "needs" in the future.  I doubt I"ll ever allow myself to really retire.

I'm a mechanical engineer by education and work in the commercial utility business (power plants).  I currently hold an executive role in sales and strategy.  This has given me a major taste of freedom and in many ways I function like an entrepreneur on someone else's dime.

Being a bit frustrated with my market here in Charlotte, I started looking elsewhere for deals several months ago. I started focusing on areas with "good" transient populations (military, hospitals, colleges, etc.). I was looking at duplexes to start, but came across some larger multi-families quickly. Being an engineer, I spreadsheet the hell out of everything. I quickly realized the numbers made much more sense on the larger properties. I'm currently in negotiation on a 22 unit townhouse complex. The Inc-Exp Ratio is strong, the CapRate is pretty good, and the ROI is "decent". The real upside is that the place has been kept in very good shape, is in an excellent location, and the rent is significantly below market. Now we just need to come to a price that keeps me happy and allows my lender to stay optimistic.

In the weeks to come, I will start a new thread, and as time allows, chronicle my experience as we move forward with this deal or start looking for another.

Thanks for reading this long winded intro and I look forward to contributing at least as much as I have gained.  Please feel free to ask questions and I will attempt to answer all.

Josh Lester