Howdy from Abilene, TX

[Kevin Tran]

Hello everyone
I am originally from San Diego, CA. Spend the first 9 years of my life in the "greatest city of America" before I decided to join the Air Force in 2004. I was assigned to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, TX as a C-130's hydraulics technician for the first 7 years. Then I decided to cross-trained into construction and they send me right back to Dyess for the next 2 1/2 years :-). I recently separated from active duty in January of this year, just 7 months shy of my half way mark. Currently serving with the Texas Air National Guard.

I found biggerpockets probably back in 2005-2006 when I bought my first home. Since I am not very proactive when it's comes to forums and postings, I never have the courage to sign up for an account but I have been reading other people's post and find them very fascinating. I also love the podcasts and I think they are great tools to learn from; very helpful on long drive to Dallas. As a matter of fact, some shows I listened to them more than once to extract all the knowledge and information that I can get.

Anyhoo, the main reason that I decided to sign up for biggerpocket account today is because I am less than 10 days to close on my second home and I want to share it with somebody. Am I excited, you ask? I am very excited indeed:-) Actually, let rewind a little bit so I can fully share my story. In 2005, I purchased my first home with no money down since my wife and I both have excellent credit scores. The price for this brand new, 1800 sqft home was 150,000 on 30 years loan at 6.75% which at this time was an awesome rate. 3 years down the road, I thought I was real smart when I let my brother in law talks me into buying a condo in San Diego and rent it out to him. I would sign for the loan since he has no credit, and he would make monthly rent payment to me. After a few years, he would basically buy the condo back from me plus 15 grand for my trouble. Despite reading about formula and seeing warning signs, I jumped head first thinking I would make money in the long run. While people getting out because prices skyrocketed, I jumped in to seize this time bomb. After a few months of making payments, he got let go from his job. I struggled to make payments for both houses just on military pay. I decided to do a short sale, which didn't work out because at this point the market is crashing. I held on to the property for another 2 months before it was foreclosed. I kicked myself to this day because I was greedy and did not think clearly. I got a foreclosure on my credit report, and he walks away with no penalty.

Fast forward to 2011, after years of saving my wife and I opened a nail salon in Abilene, TX. We have been very blessed because within 2 years of opening we have post a positive returns for both years. My wife was very reluctant to let me back into real estate after the disaster in 2008. Since we are paying for housing as a perk to attract contractors from out of town to come work for us in the salon business, I was able to talk her into buying a property to let contractors live in. Why paying someone else rent when we could pay ourselves? I spent almost 2 months looking at properties, finally found a decent one at good price. Will close within 10 days. Sorry if this turned out to be too long of a post, I get carried away sometimes. I will tell you about this property next time because my hands are cramping up from typing. I love to get to know everyone on the forums and thank you all for the opportunity to introduce myself.