First Post and Introductions from Kentucky

[Tim Grillot]

I have been lurking here for a while and decided it was time to finally introduce myself and join the fun!! My wife and I are beginner investors in the Bowling Green Kentucky area. We both work full time well paying jobs and have gotten into REI as a retirement(early) plan.

At my "normal" job I am the engineering Director at a large automotive aftermarket company managing approx. 85 employees, budgets, strategic planning, etc., etc.  My wife is a paralegal focused on real estate 95% of the time at a small law firm.  It is an awesome partnership between my wife and I with our mixed skill-sets and we love working together!

We currently have a tri-plex that we paid $170,000 for and rents for $1725/mo. After mortgage, insurance, and taxes it flows approx $140 per door. We are also closing on a duplex next week that we paid $123,000 for and rents for $1150/month. The cash flow on it after mortgage, insurance, and taxes is about the same as the tri-plex. We bought both of these off of Zillow. Due to the time our 9-5 jobs take along with kids, etc we decided to go this route to get our feet in the door. We know there are way better deals to be had and we plan to pursue that in the future as we learn and have time. So far we are loving it!!! We are focused on building a buy and hold portfolio large enough to support us in retirement. For these two deals we used money we had in savings for the down payment. As we move forward we are going to get more creative as we wont empty our nest egg doing this. We have a substantial 401k that we can borrow from as well as HELOC we can use in the future if we decide to go that route. For both these deals we used a local bank that only required 15% down on a 20 year term.

We have focused on properties in small surrounding towns, and so far that strategy has worked well for us.  We have very respectful tenants and they all want to live there.  The small towns we have focused on have very high demand and very low supply making it very easy to find good tenants.  

Our ultimate goal would be to be financially independent from monthly rent income and be able to "retire" and do real estate full time. 

Enough rambling from me for now, but thank you Bigger Pockets for all of the great information shared!!  

[Brandon L.]

Hello! @Tim Grillot

Welcome to BP, and congratulations on making the decision to invest in your future via real estate.

I have written a few blog posts that may help you get started here on BP, and with your investing. Please click on the links, give them a read, and share your thoughts in the comments.

First is a post that I feel will help not get overwhelmed with the amount of info that is here on BP:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52761-the-simple-guide-to-getting-started-on-bp

The second is a post that will help get you focused with your real estate investing goals:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52743-im-new-to-bp-any-advice-would-be-appriciated

The last one is a post that will help you choose an “investor friendly” real estate agent.

There are many agents out there, but it’s important to choose the right one.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5868/52724-im-new-to-investing-how-do-i-find-an-investor-friendly-agent

I love answering questions if you have any! Good Luck :)