hi,my name is dave atchison,i moved to phoenix az from fargo north dakota,when i was 19 years old. that was december of 1979,i have seen the town go from 1 to 4 million in those 36 years. i am soon to be 56 years old,married 35 years,2 grown daughters who are nurses,maybe be a grandpa some day.i got into real estate investing kind of by accident. i was 20 when i bought my first home,as the apartment i was living in had bugs, and i could not get them to leave,so i left. i bought my first house in 1980,i had to sell my paid off car to get the 3k down payment,then i paid cash for a $500 rambler car..lol bugs and a rambler..2 years later the home was worth 40k more than i paid for it,my payment was same as my old rent. i got married and my wifes job was on the other side of town,i felt so much pride of ownership for the home,i kept it and rented it out in 1985,and we bought a nicer home more centrally located. now i have 8  paid off single family homes,and 2 paid off condos. the condos are 150k  range,the homes 225-275k. phoenix is a boom or bust town,so when we moved to our next house,had kids and out grew it, we were in a recession,so i would have lost the 30k we saved to put down and remodel it,so came  the second rental. i have been lucky we have been able to live off one income  in our marriage, and invest the second income in real estate and mutual funds. and i always worked a job and a half to earn more. i would flip homes,condos,raw commercial land years 1995-2005 also,and invest those in more rental homes. the crash of 2008 saw us buy more rental properties at 50 cents on the dollar. i think residential  real estate is  just 1 safe place to put your money,mutual funds,and your own business being other good places. i have 30 years landlord experience,and 25 years commercial building  experience. it would be nice to develop ,and build and run, a 30-40 unit a rated apartment complex. i have the experience now,and i have never had a problem in 35 years leasing out any of my places. in the recessions of 1990 and 2008, i did have to lower rents $100 per place, for 2 years,and take tenants with lower credit scores. i have only had 1 eviction in 35 years of being a landlord. i got in to real estate by accident,but stayed in as it became a passion,the properties almost take on a life of thier own ,and speak to me,to tell me to take care of them cause thier worth it,if they are in a nice area,i never invest in an area i would not live myself. i am big on real estate being free and clear,as my places have been for 5 years now. even being free and clear and managing them myself, i only average about 11-12% returns,i dont count appreciation,only cash flow.. i tried to post a pic 3 x but it wont work?

This will bring doctors, nurses, educators, steady jobs.

Recently we've also listed on VRBO, and I got a 2.5 month rental (traveling nurse) out of that.  

I'm a nurse and i work 2 days a week and wondering what would be the best use of my time in growing this wholesaling business, bandit signs, Mail, reiaa meetings, meeting other wholesalers on my community...?

Since leaving the Navy, I decided to concentrate on Mortgage & Real Estate because unless you are in the Military, a nurse, doctor or Lawyer the income for Jobs in VA sucks.

Currently, I am renting right now until I finish my accelerated nursing program in school and then I am planing on purchasing my first multifamily unit.

And I realized there is niche in my town for traveling nurses.

I'm 23 years old, I still live at home, and I work full-time right now at a local nursing home and make roughly $11.70/hour.

And it just so happens our long term tenant who has been there for a couple of years is a nurse also and she works nights.

Last year we renovated the basement and turned it into a permitted 450-square foot studio and have been renting it out to traveling nurses every since.