Rookie in San Antonio, TX

[Jeremy Rosen]

Hello BP land! I'm an ICU nurse for the VA, married, with a great six year old step son. On my path to FI I'm already maxing out my TSP/401k, Roth IRA, HSA, and now I'm entering the world of REI! As with most things I know nothing about, I'm spending lots of time learning the basics. Wow! There's so much to learn. I've read "How to Invest in Real Estate", am starting "Set For Life", and have a couple other BP books on hold at my library already. I'm especially interested in reading the BP book about investing with little to no money and OPM. I just moved into my first house this past December which I co-own with my mother in law. After learning what I have so far, if I had to do it again I'd house hack instead. We probably paid too much based on the analysis I've done with the Rental BP calculators.

I'm not sure about the niche I want to pursue yet, but I'm determined to "just start" soon. San Antonio is so big and I don't feel like I know how to rate communities and zip codes yet. Is New Braunfels a good place to look? I'm probably not bold enough to take on too much renovation, so I'd be more comfortable buying my first property that doesn't require much capEx. Any tips for a rookie, or mistakes to avoid would be huge. Looking forward to attending a meetup soon so I can meet some other REI folks.

Picture is of the area surrounding my current home. I'm not super familiar with much more of the city though.