Real Estate Investing While Active Duty Military

[Timothy Lynch]

Hello All!

My name is Tim. I am 25 years old and currently in the United States Army and am stationed at Joint Base Lewis - McChord, Washington. I have been stationed here for over 5 years now and as of January 2020, my wife and I closed on our first home. My wife and I do not come from wealthy backgrounds and have lived in rental homes or apartments nearly our entire lives. ( My father was in the Navy and so I have lived in some military housing as well ) Therefore, we don't have any family members or people close to us that we can use to ask questions about real estate and investing in it. Purchasing our first home was an eye opening process for us and our family.

Instead of spending hours of my life mindlessly scrolling through posts from "influencers" on instagram or other forms of social media during the COVID-19 Pandemic, I decided to pick up some books and look into other ways of making money outside of my income from the military. Books like Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and How to Invest in Real Estate by Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner (which I actually finished about 30 min ago) have peaked my interest in pursuing financial freedom through real estate investing.

Though it is my goal to make a career in the military, I understand that there will come a time where my service will end. In the mean time, I'd like to learn as much as I possibly can about how to invest in real estate - especially in competitive markets such as the one in the Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle area - while serving in the military and hopefully the experiences and knowledge I attain can help me transition to civilian life outside of the military.

Is there anyone out there who might be coming from a similar background that can share any information or experiences they've had investing in Real Estate while serving in the Military? What were some of your first steps? How did you balance deployments and training events with your investments? Are there any service members currently stationed in JBLM, WA that are investing in real estate in the south puget sound area?

Thanks,

Tim.

[David Pere]

@Timothy Lynch Welcome to the military REI community! There are a lot more of us than you might think, and I am happy to help answer any questions you might have!

Your head is in the right place, and you're absolutely right about starting to prepare for transition now, because eventually your time in the military will end. I've been in the Marine Corps for 11+ years, and plan to transition to the reserves at the end of this contract (Oct 2021) to continue building my real estate investing portfolio, and business! 

I currently own 15 rental units, and am a general partner on a 146-unit apartment, amongst other transactions that have already run full-cycle.