Real Estate Newbie

Hi, my name is Andrew. I am just starting out as a real estate investor, and I wanted to use this forum to chronicle my experiences. I am married and have an 18 month old daughter. Prior to my daughter's birth I found my career as a nurse and nurse practitioner quite rewarding. I enjoyed the intellectual challenge of health care and I liked caring for people. However, after my daughter was born I was frustrated with my job. I no longer was happy spending 50-60 hours a week away from my family.

My wife and I started looking for ways that we could both be home more often. We discussed starting a business, writing books, or just reducing our expenses. We even considered buying a peice of land in the country, finding cheap used mobile home, and settling down, and working part time to buy food. However, a life of poverty was never really our dream.

But then we began researching other alternatives. We read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and other books. Then we attended a seminar called Entrepeneur Days last September. This seminar was organized by a homeschooling mom and brought together speakers on wealth building, real estate investing, Ebay selling, and copywriting. After this seminar we really began to focus on creating passive residual income. This sort of income requires an initial effort but continues to pay for years. We figured that if we could develop significant amounts of passive income, then we wouldn't have to continually work full time to support our family.

So, I began to investigate real estate investing, and my wife Rebecca began investigating internet marketing and Ebooks. We plan to use these two strategies to create passive income. Our goal is to develop a consistent income stream of $5000 a month by the end of 3 years. Then we can continue with our current lifestyle without needing a job.

I have been learning a lot about real estate investing over the past six months from two seminars, many books and websites, and a coaching program. I have just begun to market for homes to buy. There is a lot to learn in order to be successful in real estate investing. This is truly a skills based business. I want this forum to help others who are learning or want to learn real estate investing. I will share my day to day learning process. Including:

- Goal setting
- Marketing strategies: Finding deals
- Negotiating
- Deal structuring:
- Subject to deals
- Owner financing
- Private money financing
- No money down financing (since I have no money!)
- Rehabing
- Selling by:
- Lease option
- Agreement for deed

Thank you for joining me for this journey. Please feel free to ask me questions or respond to my posts.