New guy from Saint Helens, OR.

[Sean Ruddell]

    Hi there! My name is Sean Ruddell and I am looking at getting started in Real Estate. I have not completed (or started) any deals yet, and am still attempting to get enough education so that I can minimize how much I will lose on my first deal.

  Time for some background info. I come from a lower income family and so I didn't get much of a financial education growing up. I've always known that Real Estate is a safe(ish) investment, and have found that I love to see a house get fixed up and go with a family that will take care of it. 

  Currently, I work as an insurance salesman making $32k-38k a year, and spending my days calling people and looking at people's retirement plans have reminded me that I am not getting younger. Over the last two years I have realized that if I want to get to my own retirement goals I need to get going. To that end I have been trying to improve my credit score, paydown my student debt, and get into a place to start up. That's how I found Bigger Pockets! I have listened to around 30-40 of the podcasts and videos on their YouTube channel and still going. I decided to post to try and start surrounding myself with people that know more about this field I want to get into. 

  My goal is to get enough properties owned and rented out, so that I can get around $3000-5000 a month in passive income before I retire. Any tips or advice are appreciated!

[Mark Sewell]

Hey man, my step sister lives there.  We grew up in Clatskanie -- I actually went to first grade in Rainier, OR.  Later moved over to Kelso, WA.  

I also did some insurance for a while, realized I didn't care much for it.  Except I do enjoy the marketing aspect, just not a big type-A outbound phone sales guy.  

Imagine is tougher to get started in more expensive markets, like OR/WA but people do it.  I did one flip and I'm struggling to find deal #2.  Probably just not consistent enough, I keep on trying to tweak and find new strategies... probably need to just settle into 1-2 methods and just hammer away at it.