Newbie from Belleville, IL

[Chris Holt]

Good evening all. My name is Chris Holt and I am 100% a newbie when it comes to investing. I only have 1.5 yrs left here in the Belleville area and then I'll head on to wherever the Air Force sends me next. 

Beings I have a 42ft 5th Wheel RV, I recently struggled to find place to store it. Upon finding a location that has recently started up, it got me to thinking about starting up my own RV/Boat/Trailer storage area in the future. The reason for that is because not many places can store a large RV and if strictly set up to be a storage setup for RV/Boats/Trailers, I feel you can have pretty good cash flow, obviously having to be in an area that has a need for it. Upon doing research, I came across this website and have got hooked on wanting to invest in real estate investing as well. 

With that being said, over the next year I plan to save as much as I can, however, it won't be enough to use as a down payment for a duplex investment, so I will be using my VA Home loan with the intent to "House Hack." I'm guaranteed to be at my next assignment for at least 3.5 yrs, so having to stay in the one side is not an issue. Once my year is up of "house hacking" my family will look at getting an SFR and have that as a rental property for when we have to move again. I'd opt to even getting another duplex to quadplex, however, I don't know if my wife will be on board. She's reluctant right now with even doing one as it is.

Other than that, I'm here to learn as much as I can in the meantime and hopefully I can make it to some of the meeting in St. Louis, MO!

- Chris

[Megan Greathouse]

Welcome, Chris! I'm a former Marine, and I really wish I had purchased rental properties at every duty station. Good on you for making a plan to get started now! I'm in St. Louis, so let me know if you have any questions I can help with. I'm still pretty new as well, but learning quickly. :)