My Real Estate Journey

[Brendan M.]

I've posted a couple times so far on the forums and absolutely LOVE the wealth of information on here. I wanted to keep a journal of my process to financial freedom through real estate and share it with both beginners and seasoned investors who I'm sure have gone through a lot of what lies ahead. 

To give a quick background, I graduated college in Dec 2013. Two months later, I had my first post-college job as a Recruiter. While living at home, I threw all my money at student loans and within 2 years, I was debt free. I started thinking about how I could live the life I wanted and came across many blogs such as MrMoneyMustache preaching financial freedom. Thinking more about their ideas, it struck me that I didn't want to live on 20% of my income and there must be a better way which lead me to real estate and Biggerpockets. I joined a couple years ago but didn't get serious until about 3 months ago. I started saving up money for a down payment and reading real estate books ( Millionaire Real Estate Investor - Keller, Build a Rental Property Empire- Ferguson, The Book on Rental Property Investing - Turner, and currently reading The Richest Man in Babylon- Clason)

The past couple months I have looked at some properties, 2 SFH and 2 MFH. I had an idea of what I was looking for but was new and just wanted to get my feet wet. Neither of these properties were good deals so I passed. It's important to remember that passing on bad deals is as important (if not more) than finding good deals.

Being a newbie, I have learned a lot already from @Brie Schmidt who helped me change my strategy in my market (Chicago). I was originally focused on 2 unit buildings but those don't cash flow so I have moved onto looking for 3-4 unit properties.  I plan on learning a lot more from Brie (as long as she's willing!) and many other investors who have accomplished what I want to. I have connected with a couple other investors and plan on picking their brains as well to learn and absorb as much as possible. 

I want to track my progress from Day 1 and give updates on properties I've seen, numbers I've crunched, and deals that I've closed (and ones that got away). I will give my thoughts on each deal and financing that I've gone through. My hope is that people can use this as a way to see the process first hand (struggles and triumphs included) and also for me to see my growth as a person and investor. 

I couldn't be more excited about the journey and look forward to sharing with you all!