RE rookie and first-time home buyer from Athens, Georgia

[Joseph Vaughn]

Hi everyone!

I'm Joseph (from Athens, Georgia) and found BP when listening to a ChooseFI episode 312 where Scott and Mindy discussed their book First-Time Home Buyer: The Complete Playbook to Avoiding Rookie Mistakes last April (2021). I snagged a copy of their book because my wife and I will soon be FTHB; consequently, after learning about why it's important to have exit strategies and knowing that this 1st home won't be our forever home we started entertaining ideas like a live-in flip, house hacking, or a future buy & hold rental property.

Since I currently work as a Procurement Forester and I'm responsible for finding "deals", specifically buying timber from private landowners to sell to our sawmill facilities, the whole REI made sense to me from the land acquisition side.

Anyways, my goal is to build a passive income stream to reach financial independence so that I can either start a nonprofit or small business where I help landowners who have historically struggled to access markets to sell their timber for either forest products like lumber, or carbon credits to help offset larger companies carbon emissions. To reach that goal I'm currently setting aside income from my W2, looking at buying my first house, and listening/reading everything BP has to offer. I really enjoy listening to Real Estate Rookie Podcast, recently finished Scott and Mindy's book on first time home buying, and currently reading Craig Curelop's book on Housing Hacking, then I'll be moving onto the book on estimating rehab cost.

Trying to keep this post brief, but I can talk all day I've never met a stranger. 

Side note: yes, please ask me about the lumber market its my day job to understand that stuff!

Oh yeah and I'm super proud of being a dad and want to give this little man the best life possible!