Newbie

[Jason Stoddard]

Hello BP members! I am a new member to BP and for about a week now I have been listening to the podcast nonstop. 

  About Me:

  My name is Jason Stoddard. I have a beautiful 7 year old daughter named Bianca and my wife Christina and I have been married for almost 9 years now. When I finished high school I had zero clue/guidance on what to do with my life.  I did not even know that mentors were so important or even existed. So I decided to join the Army as a trombone player in the Army Music Program. Did that for about 6 years full time and enjoyed it. It allowed me to grow into the adult that I needed to be and opened my eyes to cultures around the world. Definitely one of the more rewarding experiences of my life. After the first 6 years full time I took a step back and went into the Army reserves and started to study guitar at college. This is were I made a huge mistake in my life. With the army in 2013 looking at cutting troops by the thousands my wife and I had to decide to rejoin the active army before the window closed; the window did close about six months after my decision. We decided for me to stop going to school and rejoin the active Army as a guitar player. I made the final call on fear and doubt, it was not a terrible decision, but I will NEVER make a decision based on fear ever again. After getting a certificate in guitar performance I rejoined the active duty. After coming back to full time army in Jan 2014 I have had the most opportunity that I have ever had. I was able to represent the Army in multiple music tours to include an appearance at SXSW and Vans Warped Tour. Now I realize that saving is not going to get me where I want to be in life. One of my good friends introduced me to the 4 hour work week and BP. So I can say now that I don't want to tied down by a J.O.B. I do understand that I am not wealthy yet so I am currently pursing a bachelors degree in computer science. I should be complete with it in October of 2016!!! Super pumped because it is the hardest I have ever had to work. Between full time job/dad/husband I am also finishing a 4 year degree from start to finish in 2 years. 

My plan
Now after listening to BP I am super excited to use real estate investment to release me from the shackles of a job in about 11 years. That is my goal anyways. I just am not sure were to start. We plan on living in southern California in the Burbank area after my current enlistment. Between my wife and I we should be bringing in around 120k- 140k per year after the move with about 3500 in expenses. I want to become a landlord because back when I was 19 I bought a property, that I still own and I am renting out, and from all the mistakes I made between buying, inspecting, and renting I feel I have a good baseline of experience to get stated. The mistakes I made ranged from not buying it as an invest all the way to hiring poor property managers and contractors. While I have many more mistakes in my future I do understand what it will take to hire the right people now. The one thing for us right now is where to invest. I like living in Burbank, but the properties are really expensive and due to the tourism in the area it seems that that would be a decent vacation area which I am not ready to work with yet. The only other area that people rave about, and I love, is Austin Tx. I was down there for the SXSW music festival and fell in love with that area. So if we can afford a full 20% down payment I want to look at that area for investing. I am not stuck on living where I invest and if I do not live where we invest I will probably take a week or two and fly out there and do nothing but look at houses and drive through the neighborhoods to learn the area. The benefit to living where we invest, in Burbank, is that I qualify for a VA loan which requires 0 money down and I can get up to a 4 unit complex with that first loan. So with my current enlistment, college, and life basically on auto pilot I am looking at 20k after I move for a down payment and the next step is to figure out what area I should start and focus on.

Thank you guys for your time in advance; I look forward to meeting the BP community! 

[Tyler Flagg]

Welcome to BP @Jason Stoddard. Congrats on making the decision to pursue real estate. I'm an AF guy myself and found REI in a similar way through "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" as well as the "4 Hr Work Week." etc. It's always preferred to invest where you live, however it isn't impossible to live from afar. Personally, I live in a small town in New Mexico, but I invest in Oklahoma City (6 hrs away). It has worked out so far, but that's because all of the properties I have bought were off of the MLS and through a real estate agent. However, it's much harder to find off-market properties (where the real DEALS are) because I don't live there. So it's do-able...just a lot more difficult. Food for thought. Feel free to send me a message if there is anything I can do to help.