New Member form Dallas

[Bart H.]

Hello all.

Thanks for letting me be a small part of this great Bigger pockets community.

My wife (who is also a new BP member) and I have been investing in Dallas real estate since June of 2013.

So far we have gone slowly mainly by house hacking in Dallas neighborhoods that typically appeal to young professionals.

Since June of '13 we have done 4 deals:

1)Bought (Jun'13 and then later sold Jun'15) a duplex that we lived in. 

 2)Bought (Aug'14) a 3/3 single family house that we lived in and now have as a rental.

3)Bought (Nov'15) a FSBO 4/3 SFH (zoned MF) house. We currently live in this house and hopefully will turn it into a rental.

4)In Jul'15 we bought our first first rehab project and now have it listed on MLS.

So far our deals have mostly come off of MLS, and the strong Dallas market has been a big help. My sense is the market may be slowing slightly and we will need to be a lot more discriminating when looking for future deals.

Going forward, I think we will focus more on buying wholesale properties, to flip and/or perhaps do the 'Brrr' method', ie buy, rehab, rent repeat, where it makes sense.

Short term goal I would like us to do at least 2 flips, and add another rental in 2017.  Medium term we would like to have enough success to quit my day job and go into real estate investing full time.  Long term we would like to have a real estate portfolio in retirement that would support $7K-$10K/month in free cash flow.

Our risk philosophy is that we want to do deals when they provide a reasonable upside in both cash flow and capital appreciation. We try to take measured steps with moderate leverage, and we like investments where there are multiple shots on goal. Ie multiple ways to make money (or get out of projects). And we are willing to give up a little in ROI in exchange for better tenants/properties etc.

From Bigger Pockets, I would like to continue learning (I listen to the podcasts) from the wealth of information contained in the community, and hopefully we can contribute by offering our perspective as new investors/flippers.

Thanks for reading.

-Bart