Hi from Asheville, NC

[Kama Ward]

Hi,
I've been enjoying this site for months now and finally signed up. I love real estate- it's not like learning, it's like breathing! I have been involved in real estate casually for several years, always as a side thing as related to our family goals at the time. Now that my kids are older, I want to be professional about it, have fun(meet challenges), and use it as a way to achieve financial independence.

I'm hoping to figure out a realistic, repeatable method and then set up the best structure to get it done. There are so many ways to make money! I think the wisdom and practicality at biggerpockets will help me define the best way to go forward- not to mention the questions and details that come up when executing the plan. Right now my goal is to have 2mil liquid or 100k yr pretax in today's money. I want to get to this in 10-15 yrs.

I've rehabbed a few older houses (newest was built 1915) , owned a duplex, sfr, done a 1031 straight swap, made and sold a small subdivision, and sold almost all my properties myself (for better or worse)... I've gotten good deals, made mistakes and been screwed over a few times too. But mostly made money and learned a bunch. So anyway- I hope I can contribute a bit to the forums as well.

Right now I'm leaning toward rehabbing and then moving into hard money lending, but what the heck do I know? I haven't thought of myself as being "in the business" until now. My new motto is "this time-it's not personal"! Ha. What cold hard numbers will most quickly get me to my goals? I got tickets to the conference because I'm betting that we will get out more than the $1500 we will spend on it!

Thanks!

[Kama Ward]

Yay! Thanks for the welcome James and Jon.

The reason I'd be happy with 2 million is that my end goals are freedom and security, not necessarily the best return on my money. I understand that getting good returns are essential to building wealth, but I don't need to eke out every last penny 'til death do I part. I call that income LBIP (least pain in the butt). It might be mostly in real estate. Or I if could get 5% on a totally passive investment that'd be 100k. Or I could not earn a dime and spend 100k for twenty years before I ran out. The point of the 2 mil is I feel confident we could make it work for the rest of our lives.
Or 100k a year, whichever comes first. So if I can figure a way to consistently get 20% with out it being a full time job (which seems tricky but possible), I'd only need 500K invested. Or 10% on 1mil (seems relatively easyish). That's my range.

Jon- I'll head over to that other thread and give it my best shot!