Phoenix area, finally calling myself a real estate investor~!

[Lisa Maturo]

I gravitated toward becoming a real estate investor 8 years ago without realizing that was happening.

We bought our first home in 2010 (foreclosure) with cash during a time when prices were near bottom, and we bought using 60% our own money and 40% private loan from my MIL. We lived there a year, fixed up a few things and then bought a nicer bigger house to live in with the intention of turning first house into a rental income property. We paid that first house off in 2013 and use the rental income to pay our current house mortgage. The first house is now worth nearly double what we paid in 2010. Cool!

I work full time as a naturopathic physician and for the first 5 years in private practice we rented our office space. In 2013 we bought an 1800 sq ft office condo (because I couldn't stand the idea of renting and wanted to own) and I sometimes rent out rooms in our office since it is more space than I need.  I bought the office condo for a very reasonable price and the mortgage is super low, $850 a month. 

Well, it has only taken me 8 years to realize that HEY, I'm a real estate investor already, ha!  

Naturally, I lean toward buy and hold rental properties since that's what I've already been doing since 2010.  We own 3 properties now and are ready to take it to the next level. I would really like to retire from patient care practicing within 5 years and just do real estate investing as my new second career to  build wealth (still owe student loans but I'm investing versus paying them) and live comfortably in retirement. 

My husband is a handyman (used to own his own handy man biz) and can fix up properties. We're a great team. It feels like the natural progression to move into real estate investing in a bigger way now. I'm excited to learn more.

I found BP a couple years ago after dodging a guru training pitch, but I wasn't quite ready to dive in the way I am now. I've devoured loads of information from this site over the past week, listened to lots of podcasts and ordered recommended books. I'm in deep.

Looking forward to getting to know others on this community...  Thanks for reading my long intro!!!!

Lisa