Newbie from California

[Adam Powell]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the forums and have just started listening to the podcasts. I'm glad I've stumbled on this forum. It all started with an Amazon search for a new book when I found "The Book on Rental Property Investing". This got me onto the podcast, which I listen to on my way to and from work (I drive over an hour each way so I'm getting a lot of excellent knowledge). I'm just about halfway through the book and will need to read it a few times to really dial in my plan. 

My wife and I live in Southern California (Murrieta) and have a very nice house with 5 acres, paid-off, with two rental properties in my home town of Crescent City, Ca. It's a small town in northern California that we know and can afford. We purchased our rentals a couple years ago with limited research on finding the "diamonds" and I haven't ran the numbers yet to actually see how we are doing. Our reason for buying the properties was to supplement my brother-in-law's income and to help us support him...long story but it's all working out. He lives in one of the houses so we're not pulling an rent from that one but we're also not paying rent on a house for him. The second house is right across the street and is a little one bedroom with two very happy tenants. Both properties are zoned for two houses so we're considering eventually putting a second house on each. 

I'm in the Navy and have another 7 years until I'm eligible for retirement. I've started to get into tax preparation and intend on doing taxes and rental investments to supplement my pension from the service. My end goal is to be able to what I want, when I want...probably surfing, golfing, gardening, and building whatever comes to mind.

 I plan on purchasing my next property around January 2018. Until then I'll be all over the forums, podcasts, and books!