Invest in your future

When I talk to people about what I do, the look I usually see on their face is "why would you do this"?  I got into real estate originally to help pay for my childrens college.  All four of them!  I have a good job, and make a decent living, but to put away enough money to pay for an ever increasing cost of higher education didn't seem possible.  That is were real estate investing comes in.  I vowed to purchase a house for each one of my children before the age of ten.  When the time comes for them to go to college (or what ever else maybe in their future) they will have a house to help pay for it.  They can sell it, keep it and keep collecting rent, lease option it, go live in it, you name it.   In order to do this and be comfortable about doing it, I had to find an area that was a good rental market ie, stable market, good employment opportunity, population growth, etc.  Through research and education, I decided on Kansas City, Missouri.  I live in Carnation, Washington, half way across the country from KC!  Understand, I am a General Manager of a lumber yard with a extensive background in construction, so not being able to see and control what was happening was very hard for me.  To settle those nerves, I developed relationships with a great group of people that I can depend on and trust to take care of my interests.  I have real estate agents, contractors, property managers, title/escrow, brokers, everything that I (and my investors) need to make deals go smoothly.  My experience in the construction field allows my to talk to the profesionals in a way they understand, and my management skills help me to put the right people in the right positions for a succesful result.  Having my investment in another state, you would think, would provide for a lot of sleepless nights.  On the contrary, I am able to check in on them (and my investors properties) a couple of times a year, without having to answer the phone in the middle of the night because a sink is clogged.  The thing I like most is the houses themselves, they are beautiful.  I would compare them to a Queen Ann or Capitol Hill Craftsman style home for those of you who live in Seattle.  You don't get to be 70-100 years old if you aren't built well.  I have been doing this for a few years now, and I can honetly say I have found my passion.  It's not always easy (nothing ever is) or pretty, and there is the occasional sleepless night, but I love it.