Introduction and Seeking Advice for a Young Couple Just Starting.

[Jordan Bradley]

Hi Everyone! So I have had the real estate bug for quite some time now (about a year) and I am finally at the point that I am ready to take action. This post is mainly an introduction to BP but also to seek advice based on our current situation. Thanks! 

I am currently 20 years old working as an apprentice at a crane rental company serving the DMV. (I'm a crane operator in training) My fiancé, 22 years old, is a registered nurse at a hospital in Washington D.C. 

When I started at 18y/o I was making $19.30/Hr with lots of overtime/double time while the Mrs. was getting her schooling done to become a nurse. With that said, my goal was to save as much of my money as possible while I lived at home and her's was to work part time through nursing school paying it off as she went; end goal, no student loans, and money in the bank. Somewhere in the middle of this I discovered real estate investing, but her and I have been so busy setting ourselves up financially that we have yet to take action investing in real estate.

Fast forward to today. There is $20k in the bank, no debt, moved out, and are getting married in two weeks! We got an apartment in Alexandria temporarily until we (maybe) get a house next year. The plan is to get through the wedding and then begin our journey investing in real estate. We are mainly looking to build a portfolio of rental properties with the goal to eventually replace our incomes now with passive income from rental properties. 

I am looking for any advice on what our next step should be. Do we buy a house next year for our own primary residence and then look into rental properties? Do we stay in the apartment longer and buy a property next year as our first rental? Anyone from the D.C. area knows that real estate is very expensive here so trying to find a home for ourselves and buying rentals seems like a daunting task. I have also been looking into student housing rentals by Frostburg State University because the prices seem much more feasible. Any advice helps, thanks for reading!