Newbie from Frederick, Maryland

[Meghan Custer]

Hi BiggerPockets! 

My name is Meghan - I am interested in learning all I can about becoming a buy and hold rental investor. 

My hands-on experience with RE is minimal - I purchased a foreclosure in 2009 and renovated it with my father. That home is now my family's primary residence. We have equity there, but my husband and I will be selling that property and using the profits for the down payment on a new home that we are already in the process of building. Because of that, keeping the current home to use as a first rental isn't in the cards. My father-in-law is the contractor for the new build, and with the discount he's giving us, we'll end up with over $100K equity in the new home after it's all said and done - I plan on using the new equity to finally get the ball rolling.

I'll need to keep my 9-5 for a few years, but I hope to eventually make enough in rental income that I can stay home with our kids. For now, I won't be able to devote full time hours to managing my rentals, so I'm thinking I may need to slow progress down and use a management company.

I'm curious if anyone has any tips for someone just starting out in the business who also has to work full time? How did you start out?

[Russell Brazil]

Buy 1 rental. Save up more money, buy rental 2. Save up more money, then buy rental 3.

Seriously, it doesnt need to be harder than that.  Then eventually with more properties you start saving more and are able to eventually snowball quicker since you then have multiple streams of income.