Today, I focused on my real estate journey by following Robert Kiyosaki’s program called “6 Steps to Becoming a Successful Real Estate Investor.” I’m going through it step by step, and the first step is getting my finances in order. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

I’m really excited because today I paid off my HELOC, so the only debt I have left is my mortgage. We eliminated all our other debt using a method from a book co-authored by Dr. Van Tharp called “Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom,” which opened my eyes to a whole new world. Now, we’re looking at how we spend our money and deciding how to allocate it for our first real estate purchase. I have just a couple more things to take care of, which will happen this weekend.

Of course, I had to peek at the next section of the real estate program, which is figuring out how much I can afford to buy (around $200K). I originally wanted to buy an 8-unit building, but both Robert Kiyosaki and a real estate investor advised me to start small to avoid making costly mistakes. So it looks like I will be shooting for a 3-unit instead.

Robert also emphasizes that a property should cash flow from the start, so that’s what I’ll be looking for in New Hampshire. I was already starting to search for properties. I stumbled upon a single-family home in my area, but after some research, I found it might be a historic building, so I need to do some digging to see if it is off limits.

In summary, my next steps to buying my first real estate deal are:

1. Finalize my financial strategy
2. Start looking at properties on the MLS
3. Talk to a few mortgage brokers to figure out my actual buying power
4. Get one or two agents to help me find potential properties

I’ll keep you updated on my progress. Until next time happy investing!