Newbie from Houston, Texas!

[Eric Johnston]

Howdy Everyone!

My name is Eric Johnston.  I've lived in Houston, Texas for a little over two and half years after graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in Finance.  I currently work for Frost Bank but on the commercial underwriting/lending side.  Just so everyone is aware, Frost doesn't offer mortgages.  Frost stopped offering mortgages around 2003-2004 because consumers were only interested in the offered interest rate and Frost wasn't willing to compete just on price (Frost pursues prospects that want a banking relationship).  Unfortunately I don't work in our commercial real estate group, but I hope to make it over there eventually.  Enough about Frost though!

I came upon the idea of REI in college during a real estate investment course (loved it) but decided that I had already spent enough time in college racking up loans, and shouldn't pursue a master's in real estate from Texas A&M. Over the course of the next few years I found various personal finance blogs including Mr. Money Mustache and Early Retirement Extreme. These blogs led me to the idea of investing as a greater return over paying down my student loans. So far my total returns from investing in various REITs and publically traded companies have been all over the place (as expected). Recently, a friend from church told me he was planning on buying a duplex and outlined the basic house hack to me. This lead me to BP and wanting to purchase a Duplex, Triplex, or Quadplex to house hack utilizing an FHA loan once my lease expires this year. Just some quick math tells me I will have WASTED approximately +$36M renting over the past 3 years. I've lost a ton of possible equity build up and time, and I didn't even know it. So, from that very long discussion above, I'm extremely new to REI and I'm pouring through various REI books right now to be ready for any possible opportunities.

More about me:  I'm from a military family, so I've lived overseas and outside of Texas including England, Japan, and Maryland.  I lived the longest part of my life in San Antonio, Texas (GSG).  I'm almost 26 years old, a Christian, and love to crossfit/play sports (which I'm limited to now).  There's more to me but that's all I feel like sharing here.

In closing, I hope that I will be able to work for/with and partner with many of you here on BP as many of you have large goals to become financially independent and provide well for their families and community.  I also have large goals I want to accomplish and I'm slowly working on the plan for how to proceed.  Thank you all for your time and consideration, I hope to learn many things from you all and that you have a blessed 2018!

Thank you,

Eric