New From Pearland, TX

[Ronnie Howard]

I’ve posted a little bit but haven’t introduced myself yet. I’ve been reading and pouring through the forums for a month or two now. Just absorbing information and trying to wrap my head around everything but now it’s time for action. Just before my 39th birthday in November I had stumbled on Bigger Pockets and was listening to the podcast one morning stuck in ridiculous Houston traffic and I just got very frustrated with myself wondering why I’m running the rat race everyday. Why haven’t I done anything better with my life to this point. I’ve got an amazing wife and 3 amazing boys, why am I living in traffic? You can call it a mid-life crisis, I don’t know but I’ve just had enough. So I started immersing myself in everything. I told myself I have to have a solid plan and be on my way before my 40th.

My wife and I both have great paying jobs, we both make six figures so it is a daunting task to formulate a plan to replace our incomes and still have excess to reinvest in our business. I'm in sales/business development and she is an audit manager. So I have to scale it. The plan is cash flow through buy and hold. We have some money in IRA's from previous jobs so I'm planning to start by using that to purchase a couple single family homes in my area. Goal is 2-3 this year using those funds. I am going to manage those myself because I want the experience. I'll factor in PM costs in the numbers and will eventually switch them over most likely. I know it's not possible for me to manage everything if I want to scale larger and maybe it's just my personality but looking down the road I don't see how I can expect myself to properly manage the managers if I haven't walked in their shoes at least for a short time. I feel like I have to experience it.

From there the plan is go for larger properties. Small apartment complexes most likely. I just think I have to go that route if I truly want to replace our incomes and get out of the rat race within the next 10 years. I’m hoping to get my feet wet and confidence up with single family and then start working my network to fund larger properties.

So that’s where I’m at. Here’s to 2018. Thanks for all the help so far and thanks in advance for answering all my questions to come.

- Ronnie