In the beginning...

In the beginning... No just kidding.  I won't go that far back.  So my husband and I started our journey by accident in 2012. We both bought houses before we were married and once we got married, we decided to live in my house.  So then we had to figure out what to do with Greg's house.  We decided to throw caution to the wind and rent it out.  We made the mistake of renting it to family but we didn't realize it was a mistake right away. 

Then we bought our first real estate buy and hold together in 2012 which was a single family home.  That was a great purchase as we immediately had equity in the property when we closed on it in 2012.   We put $5,000 into it and rented it out.  We still have the same excellent renters in it to this day and we have made all of our money back on that property.

So, then in 2013 we decided we would try our hands at a duplex.  We bought a foreclosed duplex in 2013 and renovated one side as the other side was occupied.  We put a little sweat equity into it and got it rented pretty quickly.  We still have the original renter in that side of the duplex...BOOM, they must love us!

We ended up renovating the other side of the duplex in 2014 and bought another buy and hold property in 2015. That property is a duplex.

Our strategy is primarily buy and hold because we want the long term cash flow involved.  We have tapped into our deepest "whys" which are family time and freedom and now feel more compelled than ever to become very aggressive with our strategy

Aggressive strategy does not equal careless property buying.  If I had to give advice to a newbie investor, the 3 top tips I would give them would be:

1. Find a mentor or connect with others who have experience

2. Create a sense of urgency that you need to do this now or you will never dip your foot into the real estate pond

3.  Be cautious of what you buy as you want to have a positive real estate journey

4.  I know I said 3, but I just thought of another one...ha!  Screen your tenants!  That has been a great strategy for us and made our lives easier with our buy and hold properties. 

I still consider us somewhat new in investing and we still look to those who have had greater success for help and guidance and they always seem very willing to help us.  Don't be afraid to ask for help.