Newbie in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

[Branden Cunningham]

Hi all, 

My name is Branden Cunningham, I'm a Michigander who's been transplanted to Massachusetts for the time being. I am a recent college grad and now Air Force Officer. Now that I've got an income, I want to find a way to make my money (at least what's left after student loans) work for me and start investing in assets. I have a strong interest in real estate and think that it could be a great opportunity to do so. I have almost zero background in real estate other than I've recently purchased a house (before finding BP) and I've started to educate myself via BP posts/blogs, podcasts, and reading recommended books.  

The idea when purchasing the house initially was to start putting my BAH (housing allowance) into my own equity vs someone else's. I've heard several other military members have purchased a house at each duty station and wanted to follow that path. After finding PB I realize there are a lot more options and opportunities, and I've also realized my house is actually currently a liability. I'd like to turn it into an asset & a real investment if the numbers work, or just get out from it without losing too much, either way I want to learn as much as I can from the experience. After that I want to keep learning and really get into real estate investing. I'd really like to learn more about and get into vacation rentals. Mostly looking to build assets/capital for future passive income. I'm working on a more formal goal/plan.

I learned about bigger podcasts from a Captain in my unit who's been interested in real estate for a while. I've only listened to podcasts on my daily commute for the last couple months until recently. I've started to dig into the website more after hearing some of the quick tips from the podcast and this newbie blog. I'd love to get out to any local meet ups, meet some investors out here in Mass. My main goal right now is to try and find a mentor to help fill in some gaps as I stumble through this first lesson. I know I'm only temporary to the Mass area and it may not be the market I end up investing in but I know I learn best from experiencing first hand and picking the brain of more experienced individuals. 

-Branden

[Kerry Baird]

Welcome!  We're at the far end of an enlisted Air Force career.   I did 6 active, 4 reserve and hubby just hit 24 years, before dropping retirement papers a month ago.  

We bought our first house in England while we were stationed overseas, and improved it while living there.  After selling that house, and converting pounds to dollars, we bought another owner-occupied house in AZ, a "pretty house."  Someone gave us "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," and we realized that we could have purchased 4 little houses instead of that bigger house.   So we got busy figuring out what to do to buy a lot of houses, which we did for the length of the tour.  Then we got to the time period where the the housing market was ambling up, and we took massive action in buying a number of properties.  One house was another owner occupied that we improved while living in it.  We used direct mail and got up to 3 rehabs a month, when we got orders back to England again.  Thankfully we sold all of our holdings before that PCS, because it all came tumbling down.  We bought another house in England, and improved it while living in it.  

We also bought three houses from overseas, all three of which we have yet to get inside, since that's the only way we could continue investing.  They have been rented from afar since 2012 and are stable newer properties.  We have used various methods to save up for down-payment funds: we set aside pay raises instead of consuming them, re-enlistment bonus sums, tax-free income from deployments, an inheritance check, the tax-free savings account while deployed...

And so forth.  

We have used a combination of niches: fix and flip, fix while occupying, quick turn wholesale deals, sold on lease option, carried back second mortgages for cash flow, bought with owner financing, bought from MLS, used direct mail, door knocked pre-foreclosures, went to courthouse steps to see if the auctions were for us.

Now we are working to...um...*not* work.  Buy and Hold is where the wealth building takes place.  Flipping gets you lump sums, holding grows long term wealth.  Long story to lay out how we did it, and to encourage you.  If we can make it in spite of deployments and overseas adventures, so can you.  I look forward to reading about your successes~