How we began.
My wife and I purchased our first investment property back in 2001. This was a time when the Baltimore market was still widely abundant with positive cash flow opportunities as a real estate investor. It was also a little more forgiving to real estate investing mistakes. Before hand I had spent several years of repeated listening to infomercial programs, mostly while sitting in rush hour traffic heading off to, or returning home as a full time employee for an office coffee vending company. After work it was back to studying. Reading any "How To" books on landlording & home repairs which could be found. I was very hesitant in the beginning, and the constant reading of books was just a way to stall taking the plunge. It was fear of the unknown that seemed to hinder any further advances into real estate investing. I was stuck in what may be called "Getting ready to get ready mode". By faking myself out to think I was actually getting ready to do something although fear was preventing making any real moves. The bank had already approved us for a 35k line of credit against our personal property, so financing was no excuse. We could purchase an inexpensive "fixer upper" and possibly have some extra funds available for minor fix -ups. That was if I was to do most of the work. Our salaries and credit line did however limit the amount of time we would have to float a vacant property for repairs. On top of that we both worked full time jobs, therefore repairs would have to be done during evenings and weekends after work. Finding reasonably priced insurance seemed to be a real problem as well. Our monthly premiums for a bare bones policy would cost half as much as our monthly credit line payments. After several weeks of shopping around we found our first investment property. A two bedroom brick row home in Baltimore City. This was what we would now call slightly distressed and in need of minor repairs.
Back the it seemed like the house of horror. It had groovy red shag carpeting throughout, scented with aged "pets gone wild" urine, The walls and windows were tinted brown with years of cigarette smoking The light fixtures had been torn from ceilings which resulted in shorted electrical wires. A lovely job of taping mirrored tiles to all bedroom doors with red electrical tape reflected one's expression of resent when entering each room. Mildew hit you like a wall when you entered the basement for the
property had been winterized by a concern lacking individual by taking a hack saw to the water main supply in the basement and bending the copper pipe over to be drained onto the floor.
Opening the bleeder valve & draining into a bucket would had taken less effort. Nevertheless after the plumber had sweat a new coupling into place, and the electrical short was discovered it was time to get rolling. The shag carpet became history,along with anything else which could not be resurrected. Minor repairs were made and after burning through about a dozen gallons of satin white and three dozen dollar store paint rollers it was time for carpet. Unfortunately the carpet installers has used the bathroom for a scrap dump which lead to a clogged the toilet which lead to overflowing onto the living room ceiling which lead to having to replace part of the ceiling. This was my fault for not being there during installation, but unfortunately I was still working a full time job. It was an easy repair though most people would have been on the horn screaming, I chose just to replace the damaged area and move on. The property was quickly rented and paid for itself within 5 years including the repairs. In addition to that we had taken out an equity on the property and purchased another investment project. We repeated this process over the years, learning how to make a living as a landlord. I was able to leave a full time job and turn to land lording as a main source of income. I would not claim to be a high roller, nor feel comfortable being one . Instead I enjoy having a rewarding career which has enabled flexibility and best of all freedom to do other things in life. If I could do it again I would have started much earlier and socked as much as possible into real estate investing. I will just remain thankful for at least making that first move. No move can be more dangerous than a bad one.

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