Newbie from north of Atlanta, Georgia

[Brett Vincent]

Hi, I'm a 24 year old from Cumming, Georgia. I currently work sixty-five hours a week at three different jobs for less than exciting pay. I started researching income strategies a few months ago and a common variant within all the books I read was investing into real estate. I also got into podcasts around this time because my public library was running out of audiobooks on these subjects I hadn't already listened to. As such, I decided to combine the desire to learn more about the real estate investment world by listening to podcasts. I listen to around 8 hours of podcasts a day, five days a week and have currently listened to around 160 hours of podcasts on real estate subjects from different podcasts in the past four and a half weeks. I'm currently on episode 74 of the Bigger Pockets podcast. For someone who probably couldn't even tell you what wholesaling is two months ago, I feel I've learned quite a bit about the market recently. 

What do I want to gain from investing into real estate? Options and the freedom not to need to work 65 hours at jobs that don't make me feel fulfilled. I'm not looking to make six figures, or even fifty thousand a year from real estate investing right off the bat and am more interested in building a portfolio for my future so that if I can guarantee a life that would be conducive to a comfortable life style for a family, even if I never move up the ladder far enough by the time that rolls around that I make the kind of salary that could allow that. As such, my highest interest has been in buy-and-hold, but I'm also interested in other investment opportunities, especially ones that offer me better short term returns so that I could reinvest those short term returns into my future investments. 

My biggest problem when it comes to finding success in different ventures I've attempted in the past has been my "ready, aim, fire" mentality I've always possessed. I've large quantities of knowledge on different fields that have interested me, only to never implement in said fields because I feel like I've not gained enough knowledge. I've also always attempted nearly everything on my own. As I can see where my "ready, aim, fire" mentality and pride from not being able to ever ask for help has gotten me, I've slowly been attempting to alter those traits. For instance, I've started a direct mail campaign using post-cards and yellow letters to out-of-state absentee owners that have properties in my area recently and email FSBOs in my area on Craigslist and Zillow and I created this Bigger Pockets account to ask questions.

As I mentioned above, I live in the Cumming area, so if there is anyone who lives in the area (me driving down to downtown Atlanta on any day but a Saturday or Sunday is difficult due to time-constraints) who would be willing to sit down with me for the price of a cup of coffee or lunch to discuss realistic possibilities for someone in my position to get moving and find a specific part of the investing world to focus on would be greatly appreciated. Since I've amassed so much new information in the past few weeks, it's difficult to find what specific area to focus on, especially at the beginning. I've already started a direct mail campaign and am contacting FSBOs on Craigslist and Zillow which is all geared for wholesaling, I've been very interested in focusing on purchasing a duplux using an owner-occupied FHA loan since the 3.5% interest is something that is doable for me, and I've even looked at rehabbing because I work 40 hours a week doing blue-collar assembly work so I know my way around a toolbox. All these areas are dividing up my interest and I would love to gain some realistic expectations on my chances of finding the type of success I'm looking for within those fields. I'm also hungry to learn more, especially information that is harder to come by on the Internet such as realistic comps for my area and other pertinent information. I would even be open to helping rehab or birddog for someone else if it means I can learn the ins-and-outs of the industry and get my feet off the ground.

Thanks for reading my long-winded introduction. I have a tendency to drag out anything I write

-Brett