Recently retired from the military and back to RE investing.

[Ed Ortiz]

I was born and raised in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. At age 17 I joined the Army Reserves and after completing two years of college I decided to become an active duty Soldier. Soon after arriving to my first duty station in central TX (Ft. Hood), I noticed that there were plenty of opportunities available to make extra income by investing in real estate. At age 21 I used my VA benefits to buy my first property (a duplex) and quickly noticed that the rent that I was getting from my next-door tenants was enough to pay for my mortgage payment. Eventually we moved out of the home, rented both sides and bought a single-family repo that we were able to pay with the income coming from the duplex. This was only the beginning of a long history of investments in Real Estate that include single family homes, mobile homes, land and even a small mobile home park. However, having to move around so many times over the last 26 years made it a challenge to continue to invest. After recently retiring from the military, my wife of 25 years and our 3 children have relocated to the Savannah, GA area. Enjoying the benefit of not having to move every few years we now have established a goal to acquire 3- or 4-bedroom single family homes to add to our rental portfolio and hold them as long-term investments. I have been reading many of the posts on this site and the success stories that I see everyday inspire me to continue to enjoy the opportunities that are available to those that are willing to take their time and learn from each other about the world of real estate investing.