Newbie from Williamsport, PA

[Matthew Steslow]

A little background first.  I am 30 years old and I have been in the oil and gas industry for six years.  I work at a minimum 60-70 hours a week and most weeks are closer to 110 hours.  The work can be hard and strenuous but it can be easy as well.  I am always away, staying in hotels sometimes thousands of miles from my wife and two kids.  This past Feb I was layed off after surviving the down turn in the market.  And have since moved to other companies, one of which treats people horribly.

After finding a book on personal finance, my wife and I were ignited into getting out of all our debt.  At this point we have one car to pay off and the house that's all.  As I continued to learn and read I found a book that took a machine gun to our bucket of get out of debt and invest in your 401k plan.  Through research and hard thinking I found a plan. 

My wife is a realtor and her license is currently in escrow so she could be home with the kids.  I found bigger pockets about a month ago and have since been reading articles and books ravenously.  And I have learned more in a month than I have in the past year.

I am tired of being away from the family and figured out the money I make is not worth the time I lose with the family.  I am far from scared of hard work and am willing to sacrifice a lot to get out.  

Our plan at this point is to bring my wife's license out of escrow and to have her take care or most of the marketing and deal making.  While I handle the numbers (I love number) and trying to find financing, while I continue to work my job.

We are beyond motivated to get me home, and are willing to take any and all advice and wisdom anyone is willing to bestow upon us!

My goal is to someday being invited on the bigger pockets pod cast, showing that if someone who works a 15 on 6 off schedule and 16 hr days can pull it off...anyone can.

[Christopher Stanis]

HI @Matthew Steslow.

Welcome to Bigger Pockets, and the Real estate investing world. I saw you're from the Williamsport area, which is where many of my properties are. 

My take is that it's important to clearly define what your goals are. Which would be more important to you- to have an extra $500/ month of cash flow, or an extra $20,000 in the bank in 6 months? That simple question has helped me focus on whether it's more important for me to be flipping or buying rentals. 

After you decide which of those two, what do you want to have or be in 5 years from now? Bigger picture outcome side. Now work backward from that point and ask yourself- what has to happen and who do I have to become to get to that point. 

Let's say for instance- your goal is to make $100k/year and be at home more often. It might be easier to do this in  Williamsport through doing 5 flips a year. If on the the other hand, you say, "I want to be a networth millionaire" then you'd be better off owning and keeping the property. 

After you figure out those questions, a few basics I found were important getting started: 

1. Know how to run your numbers. What is the value of the property fixed up? How do you run a max allowable offer? What about cash flow and CAP rate in rentals? (There are plenty of articles on figuring out the math.)

2. Where will you get the money to purchase it from? My first properties were bought with a mix of money borrowed from my parents and on credit cards. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere. 

3. What's your long term plan for the property? What if your first plan doesn't work, do you have a second exit strategy. Always look at the worst case scenario. If everything possible goes wrong, can you still make money? If the answer is yes, buy it. If the answer is no, or you're not sure, then consider walking away, or putting in a lower offer. 

4. Finally, just take action. See an ad on craigslist or zillow? Call them and make an apt to see it. Meet someone who has some great connections you're looking for? Make a time to grab coffee with them. You get the idea. If you focus your attention on taking the action you need to do to move ahead, then you should be in great shape. 

Good luck, and have fun.