Accidental Investor who sees the light!

[Gerald Barron]

Greetings Bigger Pockets!

My name is Gerald Barron and I am a quasi-accidental rental property owner who has seen the power of rental properties and wants more. To begin I'll tell you a little bit about myself and this will help explain why I say "quasi-accidental" rental owner. Long story short,  I am 35, a former military member and a former law enforcement officer. After many years of back and forth with my wife and a steady decline in my health my wife and I decided I would leave my job in law enforcement and return to college full time. My law enforcement career was very demanding and I was away from home a minimum of 12 days a month...every month... We just didn't want to live like that anymore and so I left my career behind. After going back to school for a while my wife (obviously the brains of the operation) asked if she thought it would be possible for us to buy an RV and travel the country while I completed my degree. After researching the lifestyle and school prospects I told her, absolutely. So that is what we did, we bought a class A motor-home, packed up our dogs and we have been on the road for almost a year now. We have been loving it ever since. We spent the summer in northern Wisconsin and are now wintering in Ventura California. 

This is where the quasi-accidental comes in. Neither one of us wanted to sell our house, we had remolded it ourselves and it is in a great location so we knew we wanted to rent it. What we didn't realize is how powerful rental income can be and all the benefits that come with it. Once the rent checks started coming in and we saw the cash flow I've been on a mission ever since to learn as much as I can. Of course, like most people, my research has led me to Bigger Pockets. I am learning new stuff every day and I definitely want to become more active in the BP community. 

So to bring my story to a close I'll just throw out there what I am looking to do in real estate.  I want to replace my former income and my wife's current income to become financially free. Once free we want to continue our travels in Europe without having to worry about working (normal jobs) if we don't want to. We plan on doing this through multifamily and single family cash flow properties.

Also, we plan on settling down next year for a little while so we can build our real estate business. We are looking at the Jacksonville or Orlando FL areas. That being said if there are any agents out there in those cities please feel free to contact me with your information I'd love to make some contacts in those areas. 

Again, greetings to all 

Attached is a photo of our home on wheels

[Clayton Mobley]

@Gerald Barron Congrats on your semi-accidental success! Getting started in REI is always the hardest part, and you stumbled into it - you're already ahead of the game!

If you're looking to replace your income and be financially independent, you're definitely in the right place. Make sure you set up your keyword alerts to ensure you're always aware of new opportunities in markets or investment niches that interest you. And, if you're looking to build wealth through rental props, make sure you're aware of how the 1031 exchange works and how powerful it can be. Especially as your current props appreciate over time, you may find that you can generate greater returns by selling and reinvesting in multiple cash flow props elsewhere, in which case a 1031 is going to be your very best friend. What's more, you can continue to 1031 subsequent rental props, leapfrogging your portfolio over the course of your whole life, deferring taxation all along the way. Then, when you pass, those properties go to your heirs with a stepped-up basis, meaning you never pay capital gains on the sale of your properties, and neither do your heirs! It's one of the most powerful strategies for building wealth now and ensuring a legacy for your heirs without giving uncle sam his cut ;)

You're already well on your way to your goal, and BP is the best tool you could hope for, so make the most of it!

Best of luck!

Clayton