New Member from Southeastern MN

[Sylvia DeMott]

Hi There!

I joined BiggerPockets several weeks ago after I stumbled along the podcast.  I have been interested in personal finance for a while and have been listening to Paula Pant's Afford Anything, which eventually led me to have a greater interest in real estate investing.  I admit, it's daunting, but I'd like to work on chipping away at my fears and building knowledge, experiences and connections that will help me to get into this field.

I think that I am about 2-4 years from investing in a property, as I need to understand the industry and markets and also build up a downpayment.  I would like to buy and hold rental properties with a focus on building a small portfolio of multi-family homes in a location that offers stable, professional tenants and families.  

My short-term goal (for the next month or two) is to begin to get my feet wet looking at the forums and posting as well as continuing to listen to the podcasts on a regular basis and exploring the amazing free educational tools that are offered on this site.  I would also like to read a book about rental/real estate investing.  I am interested in Scott Trench's book, Set for Life, as well as The Ultimate Guide to Real Estate Investing.  Since I have a tendency to buy and borrow more books than I read I want to take advantage of the library as well as the resources on the web.  I have downloaded and started reading "The Ultimate Beginner's Guide..."

I live in Rochester, MN, home of Mayo Clinic.  It is by far the biggest employer in town (I am self-employed, so they are not my boss) and is planning to expand by 20-30,000 employees over the next twenty years.  I am not sure if Rochester is the best location to invest, as it is already a hot market and my sense is that people tend to buy single family when possible.  So I would like to explore this area, but I would also like to look in surrounding areas (up to 2 hours away) as well as other parts of the country.

I notice that I am intimidated by real estate investing and that there is a strong part of me that sees it as foolish, even though I think that when done thoughtfully it is a very powerful strategy for building wealth and security.  

Ideally, I will invest several hours a week into listening to podcasts, reading and starting to get comfortable in this forum.  I have 2 kids and run a business so I see this as a side hustle that I will eventually be able to streamline.

This is a much longer post than I thought it would be.  Thanks for reading.

Sylvia