Starting out in Sarasota, FL

[Kate H.]

I've been a member for a couple of months now and first wanted to soak up as much real estate knowledge as possible before introducing myself. My goal was to first listen to all the podcast (Josh and Brandon are the best!), read a few real estate related books, and visit the forums and BP blogs. What a wealth of information!

A little bit about me (and my husband); we're in our late 20's and work as scientific researchers. Currently living in Western NY but we are looking to move to SW Florida (Sarasota area) by the end of the year. Our jobs are pretty flexible so we can work remotely and don't have to give up our steady paychecks.

Our goal is to reach financial independence at an early age. Luckily we're on the same page with finances and live a frugal lifestyle. We're hoping real estate investing can help fast track our long term goals. There are so many ways to make money in real estate but we believe that the buy and hold strategy would work best for us. I spent the last couple of months researching our target area and have already noticed the market getting hotter and hotter, not much inventory and prices are going up. We're still determined to find something by the end of 2015 and hope to find some people on BP to connect with to help us get started.

Our five year goal is to have a yearly passive income of $20,000. We'd like to get started buying SFH that need a bit of rehabbing and the BRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance) approach sounds like a good match. We'll be self managing for the first couple of years (but will of course calculate our cash flow as if we had a PM in place) and are ready for the headaches that come with being a landlord.

Looking forward to being an active member!