Howdy from Cypress, TX

[Justin K.]

Greetings BP!

My name is Justin, I am a native Houstonian, small businessman and I want to start my REI. I am very familiar with the Katy, Memorial and Spring Branch areas of Houston, and now I am out in Cypress, Tx.

To start my education, I have been listening to BP podcasts, and I have read Rich Dad Poor Dad and the Richest Man in Babylon.  I also have been reading/studying/jumping around What Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know About Cash Flow.

I hope to put a plan in place in the next few months, and then practice running deals until I am in financial position to act on a deal.  I love everything about homes, from DIY work to landscape curb appeal.

Right now, it seems like SFR Buy and Hold and BRRRR are most appealing to me. I hope to become an expert in the numbers so that I am ready to pull the trigger when the time is right.

I really appreciate this site, and especially the way Josh Dorkin stops the podcast to have the guest explain what they meant by a term that may come naturally to the established investor.

My weakness right now is understanding the correlation between down payments and ROI. Will your ROI go up if you put down a healthier down payment?

[Trent Herbert]

@Justin K. welcome! our paths seem very similar. I'm also in Cypress and interested in the brrrr strategy as well, that will be my focus moving forward in my investing. I'm still new to the game, I haven't bought my first property yet but am actively searching. I just had a meeting with New Western Acquisitions this past Thursday to get put on their buyers list so they will send me deals. NWA, if you haven't heard of them yet, is basically a professional wholesale company. I've read some mixed reviews about them in some of the BP forums, but my experience thus far has been pleasant. I think most of the bad reviews come from new investors that didn't do their homework before pulling the trigger. No one is putting a gun to your head to take their deals, you just have to be smart and do your due diligence as with any other deal in real estate.

I'm also reading rich dad poor dad at the moment. I recommend reading Brandon Turner's 'book on investing in real estate with no and low money down' (jeez longest title ever). Some great info in there for people just starting out.

You should check out some REI meetups, there is a local Cypress one coming up this month on the 25th. I plan on going. Another good one (and totally free with no sales pitches!) is the Jet Lending meetup, 3rd wednesday of every month at Texans Grille in City Center. I went this past Wednesday and had a lot of fun and did some much needed networking. Free beer and crawfish was an added bonus too!

Good luck in your investing!

@David Hines would love to set up a meeting with you sometime. I'm looking to start working with a RE agent that can help me in my search for that first deal.