Newbie from Holt, MI

[David Bilbey]

Hi, my name's David from Holt (Lansing area) in Michigan.

I'm a semi-newbie....

My wife and I purchased our first home in 2004 with a nothing-down, interest-only, ARM, thinking we'd simply upgrade in three to five years, as I was raised to believe real estate always appreciates. We were unpleasantly surprised when the market crashed. Our family grew from two children to four, and we needed to upgrade from our three bedroom, two bath, 1200 sq. ft. starter home. We found a good deal and purchased a slightly larger house in 2008. We found tenants for the original home, and have been renting it out ever since. The original (highly leveraged) mortgage (and 20% HEL) recently converted to more conventional loans, and we are now negatively cash-flowing.

I feel a bit like an idiot, but I want to make the best of the situation and take a proactive attitude. I do not want this experience to sour me to real estate. If I can take charge, I can try to make up for this property. I desire to buy and hold multi-family properties (or possibly single family homes), and I hope the BiggerPockets site/community can set me on the right track.