Newbie from Central Ohio

[Josh VanLandingham]

Hello BP community!  I am Josh from central Ohio (Marysville to be specific).  I've been talking with my wife about getting into real estate investing for 5+ years but never pulled the trigger, now we are 35 yrs old and making plans to buy our first property.  I am currently an engineer making a nice 6 figure salary but I am tired of the rat race (extremely long unpredictable hours) and want to be in business for myself...I want to make money work for us!  I've read about 5 books over the past few weeks and recently started listening to the BP podcasts in order to gather as much knowledge as possible.

I am definitely committed to making the plunge into real estate investing as I am selling my baby, my Ford Raptor :-(  to get out from under my large car payment.  Trying to also get other finances in order and mind my own business before moving into real estate investing.  

We have about $60-70k in equity on our current home and about $230k in my 401k, my wife and I also have excellent credit ~800.  I am hoping to use these to get into our first property.

Looking forward to learning and networking on BP!  

[Brett Snodgrass]

@Josh VanLandingham

Welcome to BP! Congrats on making a life-changing choice! 

The biggest thing is to learn in a “needs­only” incremental approach and to take action. When you are just starting out, there is so much information out there that it’s easy to get bogged down. First determine what strategy you’d like to start with. Then only learn what is needed for the next step. Then once that’s completed, learn what’s needed for the following step, and then the next and so on. This way, you won’t get distracted or overwhelmed. If after you’ve done some deals you want to try a different strategy, that’s fine but when first starting out pick something and stick to it until the end. Whether it’s getting your first flip down, wholesaler deal or rental property, choose only one, see it through and then assess if you’d like to make any adjustments from there. 

Advice for this site...

1) Set up keywords for your area and interests so that you're notified when they're used and then start interacting.

2) Read through The Ultimate Beginner's Guide

3) Go through applicable blogs and podcasts as there are a lot of great resources

Advice for REI...

1) Study up on what you need to know/do for the 1st step and then do it, then repeat for all following steps until you have completed your first investment then repeat the process and keep learning. (this will help keep you from getting distracted or overwhelmed)

2) Attend local meetups in your area and start connecting with investors. 

Good luck & God Bless.