New member from Lakeland, FL

[Sean Hawthorne]

Hello everyone!

26 year old newbie here from Lakeland, FL with with a borderline obsessive interest in investment properties. My fiance and I have great jobs where we bring in around 100k annually. We recently bought our first home for 150k and since then I haven't been able to stop researching about real estate. It fascinates me for some reason. After considering all the options in the real estate field, I've finally decided that investment properties is what I'd like to do. This allows me to keep my current job (working from home) and will enable me to create enough passive income to eventually become financially independent.

Now that you all have a bit of a better understanding of who I am, I wanted to reach out for some advice from the experts:

I am considering purchasing my first investment property with the goal of renting it out. (Link here: http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Lakeland-FL/h...)

According to rentometer, and what I know of the downtown Lakeland area, I'm fairly certain this home could fetch $650-$700/month pretty easily.

What do you all think of this move? What specific next steps did you take after purchasing your first property? How long did it take you to buy another (and then another)? Remember, I am completely new to the game so there's no such thing as too much information.

Thanks in advance!!