Newbie From Dallas, TX

[Robert Richardson]

My name is Robert Richardson and I am from Dallas, TX. I have been interested in Real Estate for a longtime but always thought that you had to have a ton of money to get started. After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad I realized that there were other creative ways to get into the business. I went to the internet to start educating myself on real estate investing. The way that I found BiggerPockets was through doing some research about creative ways to finance on YouTube and Google. BiggerPockets had so much free information out there that it was unreal.

I am a fulltime employee at a warehouse, but I am not looking to quit my job. Creating extra income though investing is what I plan to do. I am mainly interested in Buy and Hold Properties. My goal is to find one rental per year. I may consider doing 1 or 2 flips per year when work is slow at the job. I do not own a home yet, but I am looking for a duplex to be my first purchase. I will live in one side and rent out the other. That should give some property management experience as well as give me the opportunity to save a down payment for my next purchase.

I am starting this journey with very little knowledge, but I am committed to learning, networking and finding deals to reach my goal of reaching financial freedom.

[Bart H.]

Originally posted by @Robert Richardson:

My name is Robert Richardson and I am from Dallas, TX. I have been interested in Real Estate for a longtime but always thought that you had to have a ton of money to get started. After reading Rich Dad Poor Dad I realized that there were other creative ways to get into the business. I went to the internet to start educating myself on real estate investing. The way that I found BiggerPockets was through doing some research about creative ways to finance on YouTube and Google. BiggerPockets had so much free information out there that it was unreal.

I am a fulltime employee at a warehouse, but I am not looking to quit my job. Creating extra income though investing is what I plan to do. I am mainly interested in Buy and Hold Properties. My goal is to find one rental per year. I may consider doing 1 or 2 flips per year when work is slow at the job. I do not own a home yet, but I am looking for a duplex to be my first purchase. I will live in one side and rent out the other. That should give some property management experience as well as give me the opportunity to save a down payment for my next purchase.

I am starting this journey with very little knowledge, but I am committed to learning, networking and finding deals to reach my goal of reaching financial freedom.

 I think a duplex is a GREAT idea as a first property, live in one side, rent out the other.  IF you pick a duplex that you can afford as a single family house.  Think of renting out the second unit as a bonus, not as a necessity.  That is exactly how my wife and I got started.

I will also suggest, keep large reserves, it seems as though every time we buy a new property we spend $3-5K in repairs, painting,  appliances etc.  It doesn't matter how nice the place is, it seems like the day your tenant moves in a refrigerator, dish washer, AC unit or Oven will immediately fail.

Also be careful with flips, on our first flip, they will take twice as long and cost twice as much as you anticipate.  On our first one we budgeted $60K in repairs, our flip including carrying costs ended up costing us $100K in repairs.  Luckily we had the reserves and credit lines to finish the flip.  Without it, we might well have been in real trouble.

Best of luck, the real estate path is where it is at imo.