PDX Property Manager Beginning the BUY and HOLD strategy

[Polly Gage]

Hi!  My name is Polly!  I'm currently live in Portland, OR with my hubby.  I am totally new to real estate investing - the one link I do have is I have been an onsite property manager for a multi-family community for 5 years.  Over my time as a manager, I've had many discussions with my supervisor (a portfolio manager) about the owner of the property and her investing methods  -totally getting me thinking about owning rental properties.  I've done some research about financial independence and met this gal at a mom-play date who was telling me about early retirement and wanted to meet with me (I was totally thinking we would be networking about real estate, investing, stocks or something!) but turned out to be an MLM meeting.  It was almost laughable to me that this gal was planning on wealth coming from MLM (which some people are VERY successful doing a MLM, but very few are - I definitely would not be).  Either way, meeting with her definitely amped up my search on financial independence and I stumbled across a podcast from bigger pockets featuring Linda McKissack and her journey.  It was kind of an aha moment for me.  Made me realize real estate might just be the avenue for me as I'm already somewhat involved in it, and I might as well just get started! I'm in a great position to begin investing in real estate.  I really like the buy and hold strategy.  I currently live in an apartment in Portland and I get free rent and all utilities paid. My husband has a normal job and we get that extra income.  We are in a position where we have saved up a down payment, but rather than moving out of the apartments - we are thinking we should invest in a duplex or 4 plex and remain living in the apartment managing, and just start our portfolio.  I've been poking around bigger pockets and learning quite a bit, but I think what I'm really needing to do is network with others and really figure out where to go from here.  I'm very much looking at this long term - not wanting to make quick cash, but rather have a steady flow of passive income as we can't really count on social security or pensions any more for retirement!  Would love to meet others whose strategy in real estate is the buy and hold approach. Excited to network and meet new people!