New Member From Northwest Arkansas

[John Clark]

Hello all at BP!  My name is John, and as mentioned in the title I'm from Northwest Arkansas.  I currently work for Walmart Corporate designing new store prototypes and I've been itching to get out of the cubical world for quite some time now.  My real estate experience is limited to the purchase and current remodel of my own house.  I also have quite a bit of exposure to commercial real estate project management with my previous job at Walmart.

As for my future in REI, my long term goal is to be able to support myself completely without having to work for a large company wasting away in a cubical HOPING I can retire by 60. I believe there's more to life than that and I want to succeed at REI to reach my goal. However, I'm struggling on where to start. I've read a few books, been to the bank to discuss loan options and I feel like within the year I can be in a position to buy property but I want to make sure I'm doing it right. My plan right now is to start small with rental properties and add flipping later on. The Northwest Arkansas real estate market is exploding right now thanks to Walmart and all of the business it's helping bring to the area and I want to get in on it before prices get out of my reach. I look forward to what all I can learn here and if anyone has suggestions or is from NWA I would love to talk more about how to get going.

Thank you and I hope to hear back soon!