Howdy from Denver

[Robert Blake]

Howdy! I thought I’d throw my “hi!” post in and go straight into a beginner question. What's the best niche and financial strateg(ies) for someone who wants to develop a buy and hold rental strategy with some certain following conditions:

- primary residence paid in full
- low-middle 5 figure savings to invest
- low 6 figure retirement accounts that probably would get rolled to a self-directed IRA
- currently work full time and can't (won't) just quit, but want to move to something more about me than some company I (used to) work for over the course of some reasonable number of years
- not super knowledgeable of tax / legal / real estate / construction issues, but certainly willing to learn
- I pay my bills, so I assume my credit’s good. No outstanding loans, spend on the CC and pay it off every month
- I’m not averse to leverage, but I certainly don’t want to get so far over it becomes a house of cards ready to tumble down.

I assume that I would end up with 2 different "groups" of investment - the one that eventually frees me from a job in favor of my own business that requires less of my time (I know it's not easy and effortless like the gurus say), and one that makes old-age retirement comfortable.

I don’t think fix/flip or wholesaling in the near term would work for me. I think they are replacement jobs but I don’t think I can afford (...would risk) that now. Maybe it would be more viable when X amount of rental income could replace job income and could be used to fund more acquisition...but at the same time, I wonder: if I got into that, wouldn’t it be better to add those kinds of properties to my holdings instead?

I’m definitely looking into my local REIAs, but I want to make sure I find normal people to do business with and not gurus to suck my funds dry. We’ve got 3 here in the area and I’ll hit the first tonight. I’ve already seen a short seminar or two, they didn’t seem too bad. I just want to find the knowledge and helpful people instead of motivation and excitement that makes me rush off and do something stupid!

Too much for a first post? Probably. Sorry. ;)

PS - it appears I've declared myself a landlord. I'm not, yet. Gonna be.

PPS - No, not THAT Robert Blake.