CO - accidental buy and hold investor

[Matthew Rutledge]

Long time lurker, huge fan of the podcasts, thought I would make an effort to actually join the community.

My name is Matt, and as the title of this thread would indicate I am an accidental real estate investor in Denver, Colorado.

Wait, accidental? That's right. See, my wife and I had a house that we "owned." (Bank owned it...) and while we were pretty happy living there we were still saving for something bigger and better. Along came the real estate bubble, and we find ourselves in a good position to buy our dream home. So, we jump on it in summer of 2009.

But, the market is down. Really down. And we don't want to sacrifice our old place. So we rent it out. Based on what I've read in the news paper and heard on NPR, we are not the only people to have come into this situation.

And here we are a few years later. Denver is suddenly a sellers market and we are sitting on some substantial equity in both houses.

After talking things over with my wife, my mortgage broker, and re-reading Rich Dad Poor Dad, it looks like we are ready to tap into some of that equity and make the accidental investing a purposeful event.

In a few weeks we'll be aggressively hunting for new places. We plan to keep the buy and hold strategy. Since the Denver market is recovering, we're exploring Colorado Springs a bit. They do not seem to be recovering quite as well, and the single family rental outlook seems to be reasonable.

I'll try to make a few posts now and again so others can track the story. It should be an interesting ride.

So far the site and podcast has been a good source for inspiration. Maybe one day I'll be able to give a little back.

-Matt