My backwards way into real estate

My journey into real estate is a unique one to say the least. I had recently graduated from college and was working full-time in a job I believed I want to do. My girlfriend at the time had started making the push for us to get our own place now that I was out of school. She nagged me for a solid 6 months before I gave in and set up a time to go look at some properties. I didn't even look at what we were going to look at prior to showing up. After walking the first property, I was more interested than I thought I would be, but far from being hooked. I spoke with a lender and ran through the numbers and it seemed like I could afford the property. 

We set up another showing for the following day. It was a pre-foreclosure that need a good amount of work in a C class neighborhood. I fell in love with it the moment we walked in. I could see the value immediately. I knew it would take some sweat equity, but it was mainly cosmetics. The two other major appealing pieces for me were that the seller already had an appraisal for $15,000 over the asking price and the price was well below what I had planned on paying. We made an offer and closed in 21 days. The property was a 2 bed 2 bath town home. 

We set a goal to be able to move into the property before Christmas, which was in 26 days. We knew it would take a lot of effort, but that we could do it. We installed all new carpet in the upstairs, which included both bedrooms, along with completely repainting the house. The only other thing we did was redo the half bath on the main level. 24 days later we moved in. 

Right after moving in I discovered BP and started listening to the podcast. Through this I learned about house hacking to cut down month cost. We had the extra bedroom which I was using for a home office and guest bedroom, but nothing we couldn't go without. We asked a friend to move in and were able to cut our monthly cost in half. Right around the same time I had some family members approach me about becoming an agent which I finally gave into. Having the roommate made the transition as an agent easier since she was covering half of our bills. 6 months after going full-time as an agent I ran into some clients who were looking to rent while building their credit back up. They were currently living in the neighborhood in a much smaller place and wanted to move. They asked me if I knew of anything available. At this point, the roommate had run her course with us and was looking to move out. I asked the clients how much they were willing to pay. They were happy to pay roughly $150 over all my expense. Overjoyed at this idea I drew up a lease and had them move in, while we moved out. I still have this property over 2 years later and am now looking to split the master bedroom into two which should increase the rent roughly $500.

When I first went looking for properties purely to get my then girlfriend (now fiance) of my back, I never would have imaged where it would take me. I now make real estate my full-time career and couldn't be happier. I can now see that through real estate I can buy back my freedom and be able to enjoy my time doing what I want!