Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

I'm on the cusp of being a property owner. Woohoo! Just not here. :p I'm buying a townhouse in Florida, not far from where my folks live. I haven't seen it, but my folks like it and what I've seen of the floorplan is pretty charming. 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath with everything - washer, dryer, AC, covered entry and covered lanai, yadda yadda. And it overlooks a pond. Outstanding. NO, I'm not moving. It's going to be a rental property. Fortunately, my parents and my brother live nearby and can help out with day-to-day management things, and make arrangements for me if necessary. Tonight, I've been looking at Florida Landlord/Tenant law and drafting the lease agreement. I've already started working on the ad that I'm going to post on Craigslist in Tampa Bay. :) In fact, all this has been slowing down this post for quite some time! But that's okay. Scraping together the money to put down was a chore - I had to liquidate a bunch of things in order to do this. Mom and Dad also helped out, and I hope to pay them back posthaste. It'll be good, though - I just hope the financing comes through low enough that I can make a decent profit off the rent and pay them back quickly. This is a first step to financial freedom. Property is power, and land is king. I envision myself in the future being able to buy, sell, and rent properties as my main source of income, and litigate for fun on the side. Maybe be Of Counsel to a firm, and do it part-time. That would be ideal, and conducive to raising a family... should I ever have one! I won't start on that topic, but... keep your fingers crossed that everything comes out okay. Hopefully I'll be able to buy something in this area soon... but that will require me getting a different job. Working on that... I'm about to drop the paperwork for my DC bar admission. Woo hoo!! :) Things are starting to come together. :)