Retired Military and Real Estate Newbie in San Antonio, TX

[Ian Mains]

Greetings BP! I retired from the U.S. Army last year and decided to settle near San Antonio, TX. I don't have any background in real estate, but am educating myself currently with all the rich content on here as well as with two of @Brandon Turner's books (which are quite informative by the way!) My current employment is in the Cybersecurity field.

In what seems like a never-ending quest for self-improvement, I came across the idea of land investing. I tossed it out to a couple of guys in the office where I worked at the time who are both in the real estate game on the side. They both mentioned that I should check out Bigger Pockets. I signed up for an account that day and have been learning ever since. I have come to the conclusion that for "little" people like me (by little I mean I wasn't born with much of an advantage), real estate was one of the possible avenues to true wealth and legacy building. It just seems to me that if the math is favorable, and you are willing to hustle a bit, success is there to be had. I also like the idea of not having to work for the man down the road if I don't feel like it anymore.

I am interested in land investing (yes, still, and I'll make a separate post about it) and buy and hold. Off the top of my head, my farm areas for any buy and hold will be NW-W San Antonio, as well as any areas in town that may otherwise be frequented by military renters. 

I am currently in the process of cleaning up my finances, but I plan on having my first rental property under contract by the end of next year. If things go right, possibly sooner. In the mean time, I will be working on evaluating deals, getting my funnel started, and learning everything I can so that I can pull the trigger when the time is right.

I plan on attending at least one of the 3 local REIA meetings in the near future, and am interested in smaller meetups as well.