I'm still fairly new here, so here I am

[Mark K.]

Hello Bigger Pockets Fools,

@Brandon Turner, first of all, thank you so much for your podcasts, webinars and books. You have made me a true believer in investing in real estate after nearly 30 years investing in stocks with an XIRR of around 17% over the past 13 years. 

I'm Mark, a guy who is retiring from his police job in just over a week. I've been frugal all of my life and as I said above, I started investing in mutual funds around 1990 as a young man. In 1999, I found The Motley Fool and I learned that even us little guys could buy positions in companies. I really learned how to invest from the Fool and I'm forever in their debt. As a result, I'm now a CMF at the Fool and I try to help other Fools learn to invest.

I bought my first rental house in 1/17. Just like with buying stocks, I didn't really know what I was doing with that first house. The house wasn't a problem, it was my first tenant. Yep, I got the bad one first and I learned a lot. I did get my rent checks for 2 months, but then excuses, and I was quick to get her evicted, but it still took close to 2 months to finally get her out as she hung on to the very last minute. 

Since then, I got a great family in that SFR.

In 12/17, I bought my 2nd SFR. I hadn't found BP yet, but I found a SFR that stunk, was filthy, but was sound and only needed cosmetic work and cleaning. And, some minor repairs.

I got the home about $25K under appraisal value. Knowing what I know now, I probably could have gotten it another $5-$10K cheaper than I did. 

I have a great couple in that home. They keep it absolutely spotless and treat it like their own. 

I'm now looking at a triplex. I live in a small area, population about 23,000 in my town, 23,000 or so in the next town 12 miles away and about a population of maybe 120,000 in the county with the two small cities included. 

So, multi-family homes are a tad harder to come by. Owners seem to hold onto them longer and try to sell the more expensive. 

The one I'm looking at isn't listed. So, others don't know about it.  That's a plus. Odds are I'll not get it for the offer I plan to offer, but I hope I can get it cheaper than what the seller says they want. Even if I had to pay asking price, I think it worthwhile getting. I do need to raise rents thought as they are below market value.  If I can get if for around what I plan to offer, I will have a nice cash flow. 

After this, if it goes through, my guess is I'll go back to SFR. Playing with my numbers, I hope to get a 3rd SFR in about a year. With the triplex if it happens and my 2 SFR, that would put me at 6 units in about a year if the plan goes accordingly.

I'm 50, so it's not like I'm 25 doing this. So, I hope to get up to 10 units within 5 years from now. Perhaps even 11 or 12. We shall see. 

I was turned onto bigger pockets by @Caleb Teachout. Thank you, young man if you see this. 

Even though I'm retiring in just over a week, with a pension, I still plan to work PT. I want to speed up the house buying as well as I want to keep up with my stock investing. 

I know not many here talk about investing in stocks. Just like at the Fool, not very many talk about investing in real estate. 

I hope to be successful at both. I'm still a small time investor as I've never made much, but time and compounding does help us little guys to move up. 

I really love this site and I appreciate all of the posters, bloggers, pod-casters, webinar folks and on and on. 

Oh, @Brandon Turner, my oldest son is a LTJG in the US Coast Guard and he's currently in Hawaii, on the island where Honolulu is. I texted him a picture of two of your books that I got and he's ordering them as well. He also wants to invest in real estate. He also has taught himself how to surf. If you care to meet him, I can put you two in touch. 

Thanks again, everyone,

Mark