Newbie from North Carolina

[Joel Odegaard]

Hello,

My name is Joel. I recently moved to Wake Forest from Las Vegas with my wife and daughter. I'm a respiratory therapist working at Duke University hospital. My wife is a speech language pathologist. I bought in 2009 in vegas when everything was a foreclosure. Thats about the time I started to think about how to make money in real estate. We made 80k on the vegas house. I used 40,000 for a down payment to get my family and I a nice home in a nice neighborhood with above average schools. My level of knowledge with real estate investing is limited to the two home purchases and one sale. I want desperately to find a niche, mentor or something that can get me started. I am small potatoes with 40k to invest and start to build. Long term goals to make enough for financial freedom. Pay for whatever my daughter decides to do. Retire with no worries, no debt, and the ability to travel anywhere we have to to be around family. I would love to get to a point where I can quit my job or go PRN couple days a week to keep skills sharp. I like the idea of multi family properties to start with because of the cash flow. I like office space or retail with a good lease. I love to learn, work, and take as much advise as I can get. I am a firm believer in straight talk, truth, and communication. I am fiercely loyal. When someone helps me I want to reciprocate double back to them if its in my . I believe I can be a great asset to a partnership because of that. So thats about it. I would appreciate any and all advise on ways to research, network, or just plan ol relationship building.

[Brett Snodgrass]

Hi @Joel Odegaard

Welcome to the BP community! Congrats on the previous success. Real estate is a great way to work up some cash flow. Obviously that takes some work, but it's definitely doable. As far as a mentor goes, I'd recommend doing what you can to find a deal and then bringing it to someone in your area to see if they'd go in with you on it where they get majority (like 60/40) in exchange for guidance through areas that you're needing help on. You'd do the work, gain experience and avoid some common pitfalls. They get money and a chance to help someone out. Of course, there are other ways to land a mentor, but I've found this to be one of the more successful ones for those starting out. You can join your local REIAs (search meetup.com) and get to know a few potential mentors there. All the best!