Start at the very beginning

I know something needs to change.  I have been working paycheck to paycheck for many many years.  I am in I.T.  I do not love IT, but I am good at IT.  I am very good at taking things that are technical and putting the into English for people who are not technical. 

I am tired of being a translator.

Also, with the workforce getting younger, there is less need for that kind of assistance, and people who are in management and are younger than me have a new way of doing things.  I can learn, and it is exciting - however.  I have wanted to do something else my entire life.

I love real estate.  I always have.  I started collecting data on real estate when I was just a kid. I kept notebooks and pictures of things I liked.  

So one day in 2007 I stumbled upon my first property.  I didn't know how to figure out if it was a good deal, but I felt it in my bones!  It was a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 3 story condo in a great school district that was sound and only needed cosmetic updates.  I bought it for $50k.  My plan was to update and flip it - but we all know what 2008 brought us.  So I held onto it and rented it.  Boy did I find out what a good thing that was!

There were plenty of disasterous days - and costly repairs and fix-ups after tennants left me high and dry.  But through it all, I have made back my original investment and then some.  Where can you get that kind of ROI these days?

So now - how do I do this more efficiently with less disaster?  I need money so I can try again. But my credit is ruined, my house is underwater and I have teenagers sucking the life out of my bank account (said with much much love).

Here are some of the ideas I came up with:

• write a book (I did this, even self published - then dropped the idea.  It could have been really good, but I just didn't "feel" it)
• I had some ideas for widgets (I bought molding and casting tools, created the items - liked them but didn't love them)
• tried making money online by selling things on Ebay type sites (made money, but this is a pretty tedious way to make a living - again just not feeling the love
• tried making money with blog and youtube posts - they are/were good.  But I sure do hate how the internet is getting totally cobbled up by ads etc.  So that was out - I just didn't feel right contributing to that way of thinking.  It felt less like I was helping people and more like I was a leech.

These were all time consuming and mostly VERY FUN!  However, all this other work distracted me from my one true love, providing cost effective, clean, and nice housing for people.  I just feel like the world needs that.

So how can I do this without the risk?  Sounds like I need to do some learning.