Newbie in Tallahassee

[Doug Hall]

It's a book of an intro with little substance. Avoid it if you can!

Hi everyone,

I started writing an intro, but it got out of hand so I started over. Lot a good that did me!

I've been an IT guy since the nineties. Seeing 50 approaching and looking behind me for that nest egg chariot that will carry me and the missus into our golden years and all I'm seeing is a skateboard with three wheels. It's a bit daunting. We've reached that point, like many do in our generation, where we're caring for parents and children at the same time. I don't want that for my kids!

Birth of an idea:

The house we're in was a foreclosure that sat neglected for a couple years before we took it on. a 203k loan, and much work later, we moved in and absolutely love our home. Though a GC of record is required for a 203k (I've seen that discussed), a close friend of mine is a gifted builder and has a colleague with a license that he occasionally works under. That satisfied the inspector, but left me to essentially run the operation. My friend looked after the trades while work was going on, but I handled the quotes, budget, scheduling, payouts, etc.. I was a little outside my comfort zone, but you know what... I loved it!

I even looked around at the time and thought, 'I can do this'. I had my agent come over and we looked at a place on our old street that needed some rehab, but I really had no idea what I was doing. My lack of knowledge at the time quashed the idea and it's probably a very good thing that it did. I wasn't ready.

Two and half years later and I'm looking back at that three legged skateboard of a retirement fund thinking, who is going to give me a raise so I can play catch up on this thing? I'm good at what I do. I'm recognized, and feel appreciated at work. I've been promoted into a position where I have some influence and I know my voice is heard at the highest levels of the organization. But that's where it finally sunk in. No matter how influential I become in my current field, no matter who hears my voice, and no matter how much change I manage to bring, I can't make them give me a raise.

If I only needed one reason to jump into this game at such a late point in my life, that would be enough. But to tell the truth, I'm excited to get started. I'm infatuated with the idea of making the deals, running the projects, managing the properties, and a slew of other new shiny objects on my horizon. I'm looking forward to turning to my boss in the future and asking for a raise only to hear myself reply, "Sure. What's the next deal?"

I have zero experience with real estate beyond the houses we've bought and the reno on our current home, so my days and nights are consumed by education. I originally went looking for a source of information that talked about how hard REI is, rather than how easy. I wanted a source that would feed my brain useful information, rather than blow smoke into another portion of my anatomy. No BS. Just rip off the band-aide and tell me what to expect.

Enter BiggerPockets:

Josh and Brandon are who I found. The first item on my search was the podcast and I started ravenously consuming. I couldn't get enough. I started with podcast 1 and started working my way forward. I was following the links to the blogs and articles. I bought books recommended (and written) by the guests and by Josh and Brandon. I went pro so I could play with the calculators and watch the old webinars.

That was two weeks ago. I'm still listening, watching, reading everything I get my hands on. I've learned so much in that time and know that part of my journey is just beginning. Life is learning. At what point do I decide I've learned enough from everyone else' experiences to pull the trigger? What aspects of investing am I gonna get into? Who am I going to partner with and where will I find them? All very good questions and I can't wait to answer them.

Geeze! Restarted 'cause I was writing a book and what happens? Another book. My sincere apologies to all that held on this long. If I didn't have to work I'd write and I'm way out of practice, my unfortunate victims. This is going to be an awesome journey!

Doug...