Birth of a Real Estate Investor

In 1968 my father bought the house that I grew up in. At that time it sold for $25,000.00. This was new construction on the biggest lot in the new subdivision. Eight years later my father expanded the house adding another master bedroom and bathroom and a game room. The construction of the addition cost $40,000.00. The house sold in December 2005 for $759,000.00.

During the 60's and 70's my uncle bought 6 different houses. To me it seemed crazy at the time that they should move so often. But I noticed that the houses kept getting better and better. In the late 70's my uncle had a private boat dock in his back yard on the marina. I thought my uncle must make alot more than my father to afford the nice homes and the boat.

I grew up believing that debt was bad and I wanted to pay cash for everything. With that perspective, I never really considered buying a house because I didn't have the money to pay cash for a house.

When I got married and was making a decent salary I finally decided to buy a home. So I went to a first time home buyer's workshop to learn something about buying a house. At the workshop they started talking about homeownership as being one of the first steps towards building wealth, and how a married couple could realize $500,000.00 in tax free capital gains on the sale of their property. At that moment I realized that my uncle wasn't moving from house to house because he was making enough money to afford something better. He was able to afford something better because he kept moving from house to house.

From that moment, I realized that I had been a fool and should have bought a house long ago. I bought my first property soon after that. Then I started learning everything I could about real estate and real estate investing. I went to seminars and bought books and home study courses. I joined Real Estate Investing clubs and downloaded everything I could find on the internet. My wife caught the real estate fever from me and she became a real estate agent so we would have access to the MLS and a network of real estate professionals.

When my wife started working with real estate agents on a day to day basis, she came to realize how narrow minded many of them are. They would always check box A on a contract because the example contract they used had box A checked. They didn't take the time to understand what box A meant or when you would check box B instead. When she talked about investment strategies that we had been working in her office other realtors had no idea what she was talking about. The others are still trying to use methods that worked a few years ago, when a house was only listed for days before multiple offers above the list price were received.

Now I have much more experience and knowledge of real estate and I want to share that with people just starting out buying their first property. I know there are alot of sites out there to help homebuyers, but they are mostly real estate agents trying to get clients, or mortgage companies trying to sell mortgages. I want to show people how to buy their home the way a professional investor buys property rather than have them led by an agent or a mortgage broker. This is the biggest investment most people make in their lives and they should learn how to do it right. It can make the difference in whether they become wealthy or stay in the same place they are in for the rest of their lives.

I have started a forum where home buyers can come to ask questions and get answers that don't always fit into the box where most real estate professionals live. You can visit here at First Time Home Buyer Forum

Also, if you are looking for a home or information about the Orange County, California area, please visit my wife's site at Orange County Home.net