Homeless homeowner seeks knowledge, advice, connections

[David Morrow]

HELLO, BIGGER POCKETS! Please allow me a moment to talk about. . . Me.

I've recently purchased my first property, a residential 4-plex, in Springfield, IL, and I hope to expand my budding portfolio as aggressively as my circumstances allow for the next several years.

My job is all travel and I'm still single and unencumbered, so I do not maintain a home of my own. As you can imagine, that means I have very little overhead and am therefore free to invest a significant majority of my earned income. I've quickly grown tired of my rootless existence and long for the day when cashflow from my my portfolio will at least sustain the portfolio's growth, or at best replace enough of my income so I can trade this job for something less lucrative but more stationary.

I've chosen to invest in Springfield for two reasons:
1) it's cheap. This is important because I'm currently utilizing traditional financing, and am therefore hindered by the time it takes to save for each 25% down payment.
2) I have a realtor there whom I know and trust on a personal level. She is inexperienced with investment properties, but I nonetheless chose to trust her over trusting someone of whom I no prior knowledge.

For these reasons, I will continue to buy in Springfield until:
1) the market of viable multi-families is tapped out (which shouldn't take long), or
2) I learn enough to feel confident investing in other markets with the help of other professionals.

I am very interested in hearing what advice you have to offer to a noob in my situation, getting recommendations of quality turn-key services providers in other markets, and in connecting with other people who can help me in Illinois (a finance person comes to mind first).

Thanks, BP! I'm looking forward to your responses.

[David Morrow]

Kevin R. - good advice. you can bet that I will be utilizing that
OO financing as soon as I can transition to a job that allows me to justify having a residence. Right now, no family of my own and 300 days a year on the road doesn't make it plausible.

Like Mehran Kamari said, though, it reduces my overhead to near zero and keeps my DTI looking nice!

Thanks, all, for your input and words of encouragement!