All Forum Posts by: Thomas Long

@Vinay H. The wife has lived here her entire life and I enjoy bouncing around a little every few years. I think we're simply ready for something different and now is a good time in our life to make a shift of this magnitude, even if it means we end up losing out on a few local opportunities. Building wealth isn't our endgame, it's a means to an end, so if we can thrive in a new area and be successful there as well, we're good passing up what's around us because it will bring us closer to our goal in a way that money can't. But we will still have strong connections in this area and can most likely invest from a distance.

And you never know what might happen in a year... 

Whoops, didn't mean to post that twice... 

@Jay Helms You know, that's pretty much exactly the kind of stuff we like. We're heading down in a couple weeks to take a look around, anywhere you'd suggest perusing? Or restaurants/cafes/pubs? We're pretty big fans of eating too!

@Matt Jones That's really encouraging to hear. I love adventure, but I'm tentative about paving the way, so to speak. So to hear that someone else did the same we're planning on doing, and has been successful in it, is a very positive sign, so thank you for that. And we're actually going to be down in that area at the end of the month/beginning of next month to scout it out, so if you have any suggestions for that area all around Pensacola, or any time to meet and shake hands, let me know!

@Michael Plante I know it sounds crazy, but it's mainly due to local market appreciation, as well as a number of comparable houses in the area. That, plus we're refinishing our second floor, which currently doesn't count as livable space although it was intended to be, that will add another bedroom and bathroom on to the house as an extra 500 ft or so of sqfootage. The house almost doubled in value in the first three years we owned it with little more than a coat of paint and new gutters, so we're crossing our fingers in hopes that this upward trend continues. Plus it's two minutes walking from the Duck River, ten minutes walking to the city square, and easy access to a major interstate. Sooo if anyone is looking for a house in Columbia, TN...... kidding, mostly... 

But then again, I may very well be wrong, I dunno, I've never done this before...

@Miguel Dormany I am definitely a glass half empty type of guy, usually anticipating worst case scenario, simply to protect my family and myself. But I've also learned that numbers typically don't lie, so that's where I find some solace. Now I'm trying to learn what numbers I need to find and how to connect them to show the overall picture of just how profitable each property will be. Once I get that spreadsheet ironed out, and my wife's blessing of course, I'm planning on going pretty much all out. I feel my experiences and skills will translate well in this area so I'm crazy excited to see what comes from it. I appreciate the encouragement!

@William Allen I did about three or four months of training out in Pensacola back in 2007, and from what I remember it was a pretty great place. 

What brought you up to Spring Hill? This area is really blowing up too, especially now that they're, hopefully, fixing a lot of the commuting issues. And I hear they're putting in a Chick-Fil-A which is always exciting. With your local knowledge of both this area and down there, I'd love to pick your brain a bit as to what we can expect and where we should look. The wife and I are heading down there for a few days at the end of the month to scout out some areas, so any direction is appreciated! 

@Jeremy VanDelinder, Thanks for having me, Jeremy! 

REI doesn't make sense to me, that's the way I've always looked at it. How could someone make a sufficient amount of money without working at a 9-5 job?? Owning property has always been for those people who have already "arrived", they're already wealthy and successful, so they just start buying up other stuff. At least that's what I've always been taught. BP is quickly breaking down those stigmas for me, and I am just as thrilled to learn about this life as I have been in any of my other educational aspirations. Speaking of which- I graduated from Belmont University in Nashville back in 2015.

My wife just sent me a link to all the local hot spot restaurants in the Pensacola area, it's crazy how much it's changed these last few years... 

Hey friends! 

Forewarning, I suck at being brief...

So my wife and I, and our daughter, went on vacation a few weeks ago to Port St. Joe, FL. We'd been down there a number of times, my wife has been going there since she was a little girl, and it's something we always greatly look forward to each year. Well, this year we reeeeally didn't want to leave so we entertained the idea of moving there for about ten seconds, which is all it took for us to realize that the Gulf is where we want to be. We've been discussing options and possibilities and we decided the Pensacola area, maybe Gulf Breeze, would be a suitable settle down spot for us. Right now we live just south of Nashville, in good ol' Columbia, in a house we bought about four years ago for $75000 with no plans on ever moving out. Except now that we've done some work to it with the help of a cash out refinance upping the appraisal value to $145000, and the local area exploding, we're thinking we can get about $225000 or so from it if we sell in a year. Selling this little guy and starting a new life down south while we're flexible with one awesome kid and nothing tying us to this area is sounding just about perfect to us. 

I swear I'm trying to make this shorter...

I'm currently in cabinet sales, with a bachelors in ministry, basically a Christian liberal arts degree, and my wife has a bachelors in interior design, which she is phenomenal at. We make okay money now, have some student loan debt, but it's manageable. We just want that freedom to come and go as we please. So I think I'm pretty much just saying hi to everyone, and a big thank you for having this resource available to all of us. I'm reading and listening and studying and watching everything I can about this crazy, terrifying, exhilarating business and we are extremely eager to get started. The longer we wait, the deeper we'll get in that stupid analysis paralysis! But we want to be smart too... so any tips or tricks or hacks or pearls or whatever you want to call them that you have to share, I accept them all with humbly open arms as a fledgling REI student!

Thank you all, if you've made it this far, for reading this and giving me your attention for a couple minutes. I'm overwhelmed by the community on this site and I'm really really looking forward to getting to know you all better and, hopefully, working directly with some of you.