Hello! Lets connect!

[Steve Strayer]

Hello everyone! I am Steve and I found my way into this game by way of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. So chances are I am like everyone else here. 

You all might recall how Robert Kiyoaski's book mentioned, in one part, how he spent a weekend taking a course on real estate investment and how it helped him. So this past weekend, I attended the fortune builder's course here in San Antonio. What a mistake! I sat through about a day and a half of extraordinarily low yield motivational speaking and sales pitches after paying 100 dollars. SCAM ALERT! AVOID FORTUNE BUILDERS LIKE THE PLAGUE! They want you to pay 25-50k for their guru services and delivered almost no real estate content in the teaching seminar you payed to attended. All I wanted was an introduction. All I really got was a day away from work where I could have earned money and a sales pitch and bad motivational speaking. 

Anyway, on the morning of the second day after having heard almost nothing useful, I got up and left and started googling my way here. Wow. I love the fact that this website exists. To me, this is the real estate version of the bogleheads.org. It is so wonderful that information here is shared openly and people can make connections over similar interests.  The podcasts alone could fetch a price of several hundred dollars if the authors wanted to take that route. BUT ITS FREE! I love it! 

So, as for me, I have been saving my money for quite a while now, and I have some capital stored away. If any of you ever study the stock market or read about it, chances are you are familiar with vanguard.com. By buying and holding their low cost no load mutual funds, history suggests that an investor may over the long term reap a return of maybe 8% per year. That not bad. 

After reading bigger pockets "the ultimate beginners guide to real estate investing" though it is seeming like the returns on investments in real estate can approach 11%. (this estimate was drawn from the example of a duplex purchase for 250k and collecting $2,300/month for rent). 

I understand that finding these properties that will give that kind of return takes work and time, and I am ready to put in both. This is the start of my real estate investing education and it feels good to be in a position with some capital that I can put to work. 

I look forward to interacting with you all on here. I may not have too much to say at first because I will likely just be studying and reading posts and books, but feel free to say hi if you want to meet a potential source of capital or just meet someone you may be running into in this investing game we have chosen. 

Cheers to all

-Steve