Seriously Motivated from Tulsa, OK

[Deone Doctors]

Once, 16 years ago, a friend of mine told me his plan of buying some property in Alaska (where I used to live) building 6 chalets/cabins, and renting them out.  

He ran some (probably roughshod) numbers by me, and I was amazed that everyone wasn't doing something like that.  Around the same time, I began to discover self improvement books and of course happened upon Rich Dad.

I have been steadily researching for all that time since, and trying to improve my station  and job expertise (pipeline inspection) to enable me to get real estate.  However, I fell into the wealth creep trap that so many do.  Though, somewhat to my credit, I've spent the majority of my money traveling.  I've ruined my credit and rebuilt it (fluctuates between 715-775 now).

My son is 7 years old.  The year he turns 10 is my last year pipelining, hell or high water.

I've been on one project or another for the last 15 months.  I've been home for less than a month of that.  Between jobs I had 4 days off.  When they called me to go on another one (I was requested for personally for the project and it's seriously feaux pas in the industry to miss a day no matter how sick you are or turn down a job, especially if a client requests you) I was devastated.

I told my wife, went out, (putting my self out here on this one...) sat next to my garage and cried. While I was crying I thought of David Greene and was going to go inside, email him my sob story and ask how to become a real estate agent.  I realized how busy he was,  how stupid that sounds (and would sound to him), and at that moment decided to transition from Pipeliner to agent/investor in the 3 years.  In that frame of time, I'm going to completely eliminate personal debt (home, car, student loans) and purchase 2 properties a year.  So at the end of my 3 years I'll have a minimum of 8 cash flowing properties (I currently own my home, one investment property that is a long story but is not cash flowing as good as it can, and have an agreement in place to buy my next home so I can turn my current one into a rental, if I don't decide to sell to avoid depreciation recapture; which I think is something that needs to be discussed more for medium term buy and hold investors).  Ideally, I'll have some living expenses saved, and can try to survive that tough first year as an agent.

 I've been doing this pipeline thing  for 10 years, and though I love the traveling and (mostly) enjoy the work, I want to be fully involved with my son through his teen years.  I've learned a lot in my life, but I didn't start until I was an adult.  I didn't have the best direction, and was definitely a "counter-culture" teen.  I want to make sure he is better suited to make good decisions.  He's my "Why".

That, and RE is a ****ing awesome vehicle.

Sorry for the lack of brevity.  Being succinct has never been my forte, as you all will come to learn.

PS Does anyone know how to remove my phone number from my posts?