New Investor from Southwest Colorado

[Taylor Ripp]

Hello BP,

I am new to this community and very excited about all of the incredible resources and wealth of knowledge BP has to offer. I have a very unique background, and I would like to take some time to introduce myself.

My name is Louis Ripp, I am 25 years old, and I currently live in southwest Colorado in the town of Durango. I have a bachelor's degree in Economics from Colorado State University which I have not used at all in my career choices. I currently work as a Wildland Firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. This means I spend most of my summers traveling around the country fighting fires, and have a lot of time off in the winter.

I already have a bit of a start investing in real estate. When I was in college, my grandparents helped me put a down payment on a house in Fort Collins, CO. Through college, I lived in the house and rented out the other rooms which covered my mortgage. Now that I live in Durango, on the complete opposite side of the state, the house is a full blown cash flowing rental property.

I have about 20k saved up that I am looking to use as a start for investing in real estate. My ultimate goal is to be a full-time investor someday, living off of rental income and other assets. I would love to be financially independent and work for just myself someday, and I see real estate as one potential investment vehicle to help me achieve this goal.

I currently rent the property where I live in Durango, and between my girlfriend and I, we pay $950 per month in rent....for a 1 bedroom condo...Yikes! This seems like a lot, but Durango is a town where the median value of a single family home is somewhere around $360k. The 1 bedroom Condo I live in sold a few years ago for $170k. It is an expensive place to live, and this seems to be my biggest obstacle to entering the game at the moment. I would consider moving back to Fort Collins. My house there is paid off and I could save a lot of money to put towards my investments if I lived there, but I really love this area and would like to stay if possible

An appealing option to me at the moment to get started is a live-in flip. The money I am already spending in rent could be going towards the mortgage, and my job affords me a lot of time in the winter I could spend fixing up a property. I am very handy, so this type of work would not be a problem. I suppose the problem is finding this type of property in this expensive town that I can afford with a 20k down payment. These properties do exist, but it will probably be some type of foreclosure or similar type situation.

So I guess I am here to figure out how to get started. I feel like I already have a solid foundation, and being only 25 I think I can really make good things happen if I get the ball rolling. What pieces of advice do all of you have for me as a young man trying to get started in this business?