New, Military dependent originally from Nashville area

[Jason McCain]

Hey, I'm Jason McCain.

I grew up north of Nashville outside of Clarksville TN and Hopkinsville KY. I am currently a civil servant working for the DoD and I was previously in the Air Force with my wife. My wife is on Active Duty with the Air Force currently. I have lived in Great Falls, MT, Colorado Springs, CO, Tampa, FL and now Los Angeles, CA. Our next move to a currently unknown location will be in 2014.

I have always loved Real Estate and looking at houses. We have had rentals in the past but sold them in 2007 (lucky us), but I got excited about investing again in 2011. Ready to "get in the game" I quickly bought two properties while my wife was in Afghanistan...before she could get home to say "no". One was a "subject to" that I have owner financed and the other is a flip sorta. I bought a foreclosure and then got it under contract to sale within 48 hours for a 20% profit!!! I have closed on it and own it now and I am currently waiting the 60 days before I can close on the sale. I did a 90-day lease option to the new buyers on it with 10% down payment.

While I feel like I have avoided screwing up so far I was just buying and hoping for the best. No real strategy. I have used the last three months to try and figure out what I am doing and why I am doing it. Sounds easy but it has been a challenge to actually figure out why I want to do this and how to make dreams a reality. Through the process I have figured out I want to do real estate investing to create a semi-passive income stream that will allow me the freedom to quit my "day job" and spend more time with my family, travel and pursue other interest. Timeline is ten years from now or the end of 2023 to create an income stream of $8K monthly with no debt.

Understanding what my goal was helped me understand how to do it...from learning from various sources (and a lot of you here at BP) I have decided to focus on multi-family units instead of SFH. I also want them to be within a hour drive of my location. This proximity is by far the most difficult part for me. Because we are still a military family (5-10 years more of this) I don't have a permenant location yet though we expect to retire back to the Clarksville, TN area.

The three biggest things I have gotten from the forums so far are:

1. Reality check...this isn't as easy as it sounds
2. Don't be in a rush just to do something
3. How to run the numbers so I can actually make an offer that won't later
ruin me (still learning about cap rates though).

I appreciate everyone's input to the forums, blogs, and look forward to contributing in the future.