My only real exposure to real estate is a few books that I've read on the topic and I was actually referred to these forums by reading one of Brandon Turner's books and this looks like a great place to begin my real estate education :)I'm just your average guy that is fed up with a 9-5 job and looking to become financially free in my future, but even more than that to get rid of the boss and free up my time to do the things I enjoy most, so I guess you can say I am highly motivated to look into this new venture.My present time goals are to educate myself about the real estate world while connecting with those who are where I want to be and hopefully finding someone who can mentor me in this area.And my next goal after that would be to acquire a multi-family home here in Orange County that would allow us to live rent-free or cheap in the same home.Thanks for stopping by.

Ideally you want to live rent free, so any money you earn from a job can go into your investing "war chest".

I am currently a flooring contractor and to be honest if I could go full time land lord tomorrow I would do it.Extremely long story made extremely short, had leukemia a couple times and a stem cell transplant and my body can't take the flooring thing to much longer. 

I'm going to echo what @Aaron Montague & @Joe Fairless had to say.Simply put, in most markets I have come in contact with, there is no better way to live/rent (whatever you want to call it) than to buy a multi-family property, and live in one of the units.

A recent transplant from Oklahoma.

I was in college at the time and rented the two bedrooms to other students which essentially allowed me to live rent-free.

Also it’s the worst kept secret that we up in Portland have been piggybacking off the flow of transplants from the Bay for a while now.

Now she is offered enough money to live rent-free for 5-6 months.

.: "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti “

He even let me live rent-free in a fixer-upper while I fixed it up!