All Forum Posts by: Scott Kwiatkowski

@Ayodeji Kuponiyi Absolutely stud, I really appreciate your insights and help. I certainly have a lot to do which I am excited about. 

@Kerry Baird We always live in flat rate government housing because we save a lot from the BAH. The next duty station we move to I don't think we will get that opportunity. When we move, we look for areas with cheaper rent to save the same as we have been. 

We picked Lincoln, NE because we are very familiar with the area, and we have family round. The big theme I hear from everyone, including you is making sure the deal makes sense. That is what we are trying to figure out right now. The goal in the future when we go from station to station is buy housing that makes sense to us to live in then rent out when we leave or just rent out from the beginning. Thank you so much for your help and advice. I am grateful for the phenomenal people on BP.

@Brian Egr, I definitely will, thank you again.

@Ayodeji Kuponiyi, you make a great point. I am making an assumption based on the last couple years with housing being somewhat stagnant and believing that will continue for at least a couple more years. I know it is a bold assumption and real estate is certainly not predictable.   I certainly need to do more educating before I do anything in all honesty. 

@Kerry Baird, we are also in Monterey so that is awesome to hear. Very beautiful place, and very expensive! I think that way is solid too (and have thought of the possibility), but I lack the knowledge which is why I wanted to wait a couple years to educate myself more. We try to avoid debt and have so for the last ten years, which is why we want to continue that. I understand your point and it is interesting for sure. I would have to feel better about it through getting myself up to speed with mortgages, PMs, etc., because my fear is biting off way more than we can chew.  Do you guys buy locally where you are stationed or does it really matter on the market you are interested in?

Thank you all again so much for you input, very impressed. 

@Jared Olson, you are absolutely correct. I listened to a podcast on BP a couple of days ago about finding a good property management and doing the rigorous interview process to ensure a better outcome. I do not have any family members who have experience either with real estate (nor do I think I would want family involved), so my intention was to hire a PM.

@Brian Egr, I definitely need to and my intention of the next year or two is doing nothing but that so I have a good understanding of my options. I have been reading and hearing nothing but good things about them. 

Thank you both and good luck in your adventures!

I am in the military, and my wife and I will be moving at the end of this year somewhere to the East coast. We will have about 75k saved by that time and in a couple years should be close to around 150k. We are from Lincoln, Nebraska which is where we will go back once I retire, so I would like to start real estate investing in our home town. I don't plan to retire for another 6 or 14 years, somewhere in that range. Once we have the money saved up, we would buy a house which would be in about 3 years from now.

My thought process is using around 120-130k to buy a SFH at that price so we don't have any debt in order to start collecting rent once we are able to rent the place out. From the rent money and our continued efforts in saving, we would keep doing the same thing in purchasing another SFH. We would just keep doing this until we felt like stopping I guess.

Does anyone have suggestions, comments, concerns, or ideas I am not aware of to maximize the process the best? I know there are a million ways to skin a cat (sorry if you're a cat lover) but I am new to real estate and would love experienced advice.

Thank you for your time and sorry for the lengthy post.

Faithfully,

Scott

Hello everyone!

My name is Scott Kwiatkowski and I am new to real estate with no experience. I am in the military, currently Seaside, CA. I find investing in real estate to be very exciting and I cannot wait. I look forward to continuing to educate myself through the podcasts, blogs, articles, etc., through you all.

Look forward to your insights!