Newbie from Conroe, Texas

[Daniel J.]

I am a complete newbie when it comes to Real Estate Investing in the Conroe, Texas area. For those of you who don't know, Conroe is just North of Houston. We did just purchase our own home, but outside of that, and some reading I have very little knowledge. My ultimate goal is to provide Financial Independence for my family, which the thought of excites me quite a bit. I realize that is quite a ways off, and am under no illusions that REI will make me a millionaire overnight! My first major goal is to provide enough income to supplement what I make at work. As well, to provide a cushion in case I lost or decided to quit my job. I believe I have learned enough to decide that Multi Family is the place to start so as to decrease the risk of the cost of vacancies. I am certainly open to learning about Single Family as well though. As we are young I am extremely interested in creative financing as we will not have our own traditional capitol to provide for quite awhile. I realize this can be a much harder path, but I am willing to put in the sweat equity to make happen. As much as I want to start now, I have no desire to make foolish decisions and lose time and money and jeopardize what we already have. I realize there is inherent risk in REI, but I see no reason to risk unnecessarily or foolishly just because I cannot be patient. I am trying to wade through all the free resources and not ask questions that are already answered if at all possible! It's fantastic that there are so many resources so easily at hand, though my keyword alerts are keeping me off track from reading the books! Any and all advice or nudges or even kicks in the right direction would be appreciated, specific to these areas or just in general.

Thank you for your time!

Daniel