Investor from Middle Georgia

[Lee Taylor]

I've been a member on BP for a while now, and realized I never posted an introduction post. I guess it's time to make it official. First I have a wonderful and supportive wife and two young children. I work in corporate America and and just don't feel like that's where I want to spend the majority of my life. 

I live in Middle Georgia and recently purchased a triplex as my first true investment property. I have two other income producing properties, one is family land and the other was a previous primary residence in Lawrenceville, GA. 

I've always been keen on the idea of real estate investing as a way to build wealth and provide financial freedom and security, but until recently I never really understood what it meant to invest in real estate. I found BP by accident when I was looking to rent out my house in Lawrenceville. I literally searched the web for "how to rent my house" and found Brandon's article. It amazed how simple it sounded and I followed the article step-by-step until my house was rented out! That was about six months ago and I haven't looked back.

I started by listening to audio books as I had only used BP for that one article, I hadn't even uncorked the true power and potential that this community and group of resources offered. As I continued to pursue education vigorously I created a profile and found the pod casts. I started attending my local REIA meetings and network with other investors every chance I get.

It has taken me a while to figure out what my strategy is and what my goals and plan are to achieve success. As I mentioned, I have three investment properties with a total of five units. I have another deal that I'm working on that will be seller financing for a SFR. My plan is to get my license by the spring and start wholesaling at that point. The strategy I'm following is to use direct mail marketing in traditional wholesale fashion, choose the deals I want for myself that fit my criteria, wholesale others, potentially list the houses that people may want to explore the option of selling retail, and eventually get my broker's license to operate property management as well for any investors that may wish to make that change versus cashing out completely while still controlling the expenses for my own portfolio.

Whew...that seems like a lot! I'm an opportunist and don't want to leave anything on the table, but I also want to be focused in what properties I want in my portfolio. I'm sure there will be many challenges along the way as I scale and develop my business, but as I've learned from BP, it's really not that hard if you just move in the right direction and continue to make improvements. I'm crazy and developing systems and processes that automate the business.

At the end of the day real estate offers options that other investment vehicles just can't match. Sure, I've tripled my money on a stock in an hour, but I really didn't have the control over that outcome like I do when investing in property. Not to mention the numerous tax advantages and flexibility to create whatever kind of lifestyle you want. I envy and respect all of you who are out here living your dream and those that are at least pursuing it. My mindset has shifted so much it's almost impossible to have a conversation with someone without talking about real estate!

My apologies for the long winded "intro" lol, but I just don't have many people in my life that I can relate to with what I'm thinking and how I'm feeling. I do want to say thank you to the BP team for providing such a valuable resource.