Newbie from Rockford, IL

[Valerie Young]

Hi Everyone!

I'm Val, and my husband is Tanner. We currently live outside of Rockford, IL. I'm originally from central WI, and Tanner was raised around here. Tanner has allowed me to be a stay at home mommy for our little girl, and he works in construction.

In 2007 we bought our first house together and lived there for four years. We now rent it out. We bought the house that we live in, in October 2011. The property was heavily discounted and we now have about $90K (minimum) equity in it. We established a he-loc for $30K in the beginning of July, and we plan on purchasing houses with cash. Around here our markets are quite low, so that should be more than enough for a SFR. Our plan is to pay cash, get the property fixed up and rented out, refi and take 80% out. We will use the 80% cash out to pay off the he-loc and purchase one or two other rentals. Then repeat that process over and over.

We are currently in the process of buying a rental house for less than $20, and should be closing sometime in August. The house should appraise out for around $70K, after minimal work (less than $5K) that we are going to do ourselves. Until we get big enough we plan on doing all of the maintenance and upkeep on the properties ourselves.

Any tips or advice for using this strategy?

Any advice for being successful in this business with a baby on my hip? (We don't have a lot of family close, so she comes with us everywhere)

Both Tanner and myself are excited about this new journey that we're taking. And we are so glad that we found such an awesome resource in BiggerPockets!!