26 yo Newbie looking to invest in Colorado!

[Alex Pickles]

Sorry for the long post in advance but bare with me! So my name is Alex Pickles (yes like the food) and I’m a 26 year old male from Bend, Oregon. I’ve been interested in real estate for about 5 years now, doing my own research and I even took the real estate licensing course, not with the intention of becoming an agent, but to learn everything I could about real estate. I stumbled upon the BiggerPockets podcast around 4 years ago and became HOOKED. I worked as a heavy equipment operator so for 10 hours a day, 6 days a week I would have headphones in listening to this and taking away little chunks of gold from every episode, and I honestly learned way more from that than my real estate course. 

But then last year I got presented with an opportunity to work as a traveling heavy equipment operator in the oil fields for a substantial increase in pay and that took up so much of my time traveling from state to state and working 60-100 hours a week I completely fell off the real estate wagon. my train of thought was “I’m making over 6 figures now, I’ve made it!” But about 4 months ago I sat down and really started to think. The oil industry isn’t going to last forever, I’m working INSANE amount of hours and I’m missing all the important things that are happening in my friends and families life. This isn’t worth it. So my thought process has now shifted to, I’m at that age where I do need to start thinking about starting a family of my own, and life on the road is really tough on relationships. I need to use this money that I’m making now as a means to an end. So here I am! More inspired and than ever!

As to why I chose Colorado to be the place I want to settle down is one of my last jobs was in the Denver area and I fell in love with the place. It has a booming economy, not to reliant on one source, so if oil or something were to crash Denver would be fine. (unlike west Texas) and the people and how beautiful the nature is, kind of like Oregon! Also what better place to get started in this than where the BiggerPockets HQ is located! Watch out josh I’m coming for ya ;)

I don't currently have any deals under my belt, but I do however have a nice big fifth wheel that I have zero problem living in. So my question to you guys is, what strategy do you guys think I should pursue? Should i start small and do my first deal as a house hack with an FHA and Live in my fifth wheel? Is that even legal? Or should i Airbnb my fifth wheel and rent out the other rooms in the house? I have no preference on single family-multi family homes, I just wanna get my feet wet and get the jitters out of the way and I'm just looking for a DEAL. ORRRRR should I take out an unsecured LOC and just jump right in with the Brrrr strategy? I don't have THAT much saved up to completely finance a brrrr with cash but I do have a pretty high credit score so I think I could qualify for a reasonable LOC.

so with all that being said, this is my first time posting to any type of forum ever and I’m doing this journey completely alone. So any advice you guys have would be GREATLY appreciated and a huge confidence boost. Don’t be afraid to reach out to me! Thank you guys so much for everything you do at BiggerPockets, it’s truly inspiring and I can’t wait to start meeting and interacting with you guys!