New Member from Austin, TX

[Christopher Ward]

Hello everyone!!

My name is Christopher Ward and I am a 27 year old mailman from Austin, TX. I am brand new to the BP forums, but I am excited to explore them and see all the helpful tools and insights that I know they have to offer. I have just recently been introduced to the prospect of being a real estate investor but I'm not sure if I have ever been more interested in something in my entire life!!

In stumbling through the several popular real estate investing podcasts I, of course, came across BP's and over the last few weeks have listened to just about every episode Josh and Brandon have been a part of! I love how they cover and explore almost every part of real estate possible and explain everything not only at a high level but break things down to the most basic levels to make things fully comprehendible to even the newest listeners.

Personally I am wanting to jump into the real estate investing world for several reasons.

1. I have a decent amount of savings just sitting around collecting dust and a few pennies a year in a savings account and thanks to these podcasts I realize now just how foolish I am to have been letting that happen for the last several years. 

2. Because I don't make enough money at my full time job to support the lifestyle and comfortability that I want to have later in life.

3. I am working for money not having money working for me!! (thanks to the rich dad series for this one) 

4. Not to toot my own horn, but I have always felt that I am overqualified and much too skilled to be doing what I do and that I would really be letting not only myself but my family down if I let myself get trapped settling for the rest of my life. I have been waiting for an opportunity to arise that I can put forth some real effort in to and be successful in and I am positive that this is it!!

My ultimate goal in real estate investing is to become financially free. I want to do that by investing and purchasing 4-10 properties in the next 5 years using a lot of leverage as I have learned is the best way for someone like me to do it. I would like to purchase a fourplex or duplex somewhere in my hometown with a FHA loan where I would live in 1 unit and rent out the rest in the next 6 months. I am interested in generating substantial positive cash flow from the properties I will be investing in and for the most part I do not think my home market will be the most ideal place for that so I will be looking to venture out for the majority of these investments.

As I said I am extremely excited to be here, to learn and grow as an investor, and to get started! Sorry my intro got a little long winded but a big thank you to the guys from BP for giving us this platform to learn and connect on!