3 Years Later: 1st Rental Property to Full Time RE Investor

[Julie Kern]

Hey there, BP'ers! It's been a while since I last posted and ALOT has changed since then.

3 yrs ago this month, my husband and I started looking for our first rental property as another retirement vehicle beyond 401k's and IRA's. After buying and rehabbing that first property, the bug bit pretty hard, and now 3 yrs later I've moved from W2 employee/part-time landlord to full-time investor.

Since November 2014, we've purchased 8 rental properties - 5 in Kennesaw, GA, 1 in Acworth, GA and 2 in Memphis (through turnkey providers). 

We've bought properties off CraigsList, the MLS, wholesalers and turnkey providers. The CraigsList and MLS properties were our best deals so far, and also happen to be the first 2 properties we bought back in 2014. All of our local properties were distressed when we bought them and have been rehabbed. All properties except the turnkey properties were purchased with cash, and then we did cash-out refis. For some, we waited 6 months for seasoning, for others we used delayed financing to just get our purchase price back out as quickly as possible.

We've done some private lending, including transactional lending a few times (which I love!). 

We currently have funds invested with friends who have a flipping business, and that provides a nice stream of (truly!) passive income each month, which is part of what allowed me to leave my job.

I left my 6-figure W2 job in early August (which was pretty scary at the time, but I got over it real fast) and formed a wholesaling business, partnering with those same friends who have the flipping business.  

We're currently doing direct mail marketing (working with @Jerry Puckett, who is AWESOME!) and have 3 properties under contract after being in business for under 2 months.  I'm hoping to acquire a couple of rental properties a year through the wholesaling business and also do 2-3 flips.  We're targeting Paulding, Bartow, Cherokee and Cobb Counties in North Georgia.

And I have to say a huge thank you to @Joshua Dorkin , @Brandon Turner and the rest of the BP team.  Without Bigger Pockets, there's no way we would have even bought that first property.  I've learned SO much from this site and met numerous local investors who I now consider great friends. 

I'm blessed to be a part of this community and thank God everyday for allowing me this opportunity.  

Blessings!