Hello all, my name is James and I am from the seacoast region of New Hampshire. I started out in real estate as a complete accident. While working for a very small property management company in which the owner also owned about a dozen units, a deal fell across our desk, and seeing how much money there was to be had in this field, I pounced on it. After alerting my wife that we had just had an offer accepted on a house (thankfully she took this news well...she is amazing), the gravity of the situation started to weigh upon us.
I had bought a home that was over 100 years old, had no electricity or heat on the 2nd or 3rd floor, needed completely new everything, and knew so little about being a handyman that I did not even own a cordless drill or a hammer. Nine months later, and with lots of help from my dad on the labor and carpentry end, the house had been completely rebuilt, basically from the studs up, on nights and weekends. In this time I learned to hang Sheetrock, install and finish floors, take out a load-bearing wall, install copper, pex, and drain plumbing, wire a house, install a electrical panel, and every other possible task in between, and my father and I did all the work ourselves. I also set the home up as a duplex and rented half of it to friends for a year. I then "unconverted" the duplex, and have rented it out to college students for the last two years. We are moving back into the house this summer, as we love the area so much, and know I am committing a cardinal sin here, and are emotionally attached to the house.
There was a lot of blood, sweat, and a few tears, involved in that house. A lot of rookie mistakes, and a lot of things I would do differently, but it gave me the confidence that I can do anything I put my mind to. This is important to me, as my whole life up until that point I have been a chronic underachiever, squandering my natural aptitude. Two years later, many other aspects of life are under control, and we are finally ready mentally to strike out again, much more intensely this time.
I believe our debt, in the form of student loans, is one big hurdle to cross, as is the fact that we have almost no professional network in the area. Our goal (in the interest of brevity, not my strong suit) is to achieve the annual median household salary in the US in passive net income, which allows us to quit working given our tastes and lifestyle.
Real estate is the first thing adult life that I have found I have both the interest, and aptitude, for as a career, and it's why I am so eager to get involved in this community and learn as much as I can.
Sorry for the novel; I tend to be very flow-of-consciousness in my writing, and I guess in life, in general. Probably something I should work on! Thanks!
