The year was 2000, I was fresh out of college and, like most people my age, I took a job at a dot com. At the time I was living at home and had a bit of extra folding money so I decided to put it in the stock market rather than waste it on frivolous things a 22-year old might... In hindsight, I should've blown it on Von Dutch trucker hats and a sweet leather duster jacket.

In 2008, same story, different year. I had my coin in the stock market, only to take another decent sized hit. Again, I could've used that money to trick out my MySpace profile and bought a leather duster jacket to boot. So it goes.

After two recessions in under a decade, I wanted more control with more stable returns. In 2010, I found an answer. My good friend from college, Ryan, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. A city made famous from Bugs Bunny's repeated mistake of not making a left when hitting the town. In college, Ryan was a janitor who would secretly solve math problems on the chalk board at night...I might be mis-remembering things, but he was wicked smart. Ryan had started to pick up small multi-family buildings from the still smoldering wreckage of the Great Recession. Albuquerque represented a great market for this. The three largest employers are public institutions (Kirtland Air Force Base, University of New Mexico, and Albuquerque Public Schools) who aren't going anywhere, there is a large renter class, and since it was not a 'hot' market, like Denver or Portland, there was significantly less competition which presented great buying opportunities. Even though he was not looking at a market with significant appreciation, he was compensated with higher cash flow (cap rates of 7-8% vs. 4%-5% of Denver/Portland). It didn't take long before I partnered up with Ryan to help grow the business.

We've both found real estate offers both us and our investors a better way to put our money to work and to do so in way were we have more control over our destiny. Now, God willing, I'll finally get that leather duster jacket.