(This is part 2 of my story leading to financial freedom. Part one is my earlier success story that can be found below.)

At this point (May 2005)I own my personal home, 1/4 of a mountain cabin, 1 Boise rental, 3 Boise fourplexes, and 2 Bakersfield rentals. I thought I was done for the year until I saw a deal I could not walk away from on realtor.com. I saw a rental home that I knew should have been priced at 180k in Caldwell, ID but was on the market for 155k. I quickly pulled more money out of my home line of credit (LOC) and purchased this home.

It is valued at 215k now! I flew out to Boise in September to do a final walk-through on the property and closed the deal. When I was there I also took a look at my other single family rental and my 3 fourplexes. The single family rental looked fine but I was a bit concerned about the fourplexes. We had taken the properties from 10% occupancy (they were new at purchase) to 90% occupancy. By this time we had turned over about three renters and I am sure more were coming. At this time the market was still really hot so Ann Marie and I decided to sell them.

We purchased each fourplex for about 265k and sold them for 329k each. After paying all fees we made 130k in the six month time we owned the properties. All money was 1031 exchanged. In December 2005 we purchased 4 single family rentals near Salt Lake City that cash flow about 200 dollars each per month.

In early January 06 we sold our IRA-owned Bakersfield rental and plan on buying our first commercial property in or around Salt Lake City. In May of 2006 we plan on selling our first single family rental in Boise and paying off our LOC's that we have on our homes. We are also selling our one-fourth ownership on our cabin. On 2/3/06 we closed on our own cabin that we are going to rent out. By March of 2006 we should have a limited liability corporation (LLC) that covers all properties in what is called a Delaware series LLC. This will put me into a nice and safe cash flow situation. I should be ready for the next emerging real estate market.

I can't truly explain to you what this has done for my family. I never thought that I would feel so secure in my financial life and retirement. I no longer fear my kid's college tuition. It has given our family a boost of confidence that I could not have achieved at a regular job. This hobby of ours called real estate investments has changed my family and my near future generations.

Anthony Santana
Sacramento,CA