Long Overdue New Member Intro

[Shawn Regnier]

Hello everyone, my name is Shawn Regnier, and I have been lurking the BP forums for over a year; I figured it was time to finally make a formal introduction.

I am a Los Angeles (San Fernando Valley) resident, and have been for the last six years. I'm originally from Manchester, NH, and was lured to CA by what seemed like an innocent friend request on Facebook from a girl I went to high school with 26 years earlier; but had never spoken with in the two years we went there together (there was plenty of checking out, though). ;-) Fast forward seven weeks + 3,000 miles, and my California residency began!

Here in CA, I started a self employed personal training business five years ago, and love what I do, but as my 50th birthday approached last month; I knew that true security and financial freedom wasn't going to come from my current profession. California is expensive, and I have more than just my own future to worry about (did I mention we are married now)? :) Many of my clients have passive income through commercial, and home or vacation rental properties. I never thought about getting into real estate because I, like millions of other people, believed you needed to be wealthy if you were going to invest in properties.

My eyes really got opened to the options in front of me December of last year when one of my clients got into rehab/flips. He had the vision and knowledge of how to make it work, and one of his colleagues had the extra capital to bring to the deal. They've been successfully flipping homes all year, and I've been a fly on the wall picking his brain during the entire process, learning everything I can through his trial and error with each deal. 

One of my hangups in life, is that I don't like to ask people for help; I enjoy helping others, but hate being a burden. I generally DIY most everything; even if will end up taking three times as long to accomplish. I'm trying to break out of my shell in that regard, which is why I've been to a couple meetups recently, and am finally doing an intro here. I've listened to over 150 of the most recent BP podcasts during the last year and a half, bought multiple real estate books, and have tried to sponge as much knowledge as I can from reading and talking to investors I know. 

I enrolled in real estate classes two months ago (through Rockwell Institute online, which I highly recommend), and am awaiting my state exam; which I'm confident I'll pass. I decided to get my real estate license because I want MLS access to do my own listing search, want the ability to view homes with lock boxes, want the closing commission on the buying end, and wanted to bring more value to people who will invest in future real estate ventures with me. I know you don't need a RE license to start investing, but I wanted to learn everything from the agent's side of the deal, and when talking to people about investing; I feel people will see more value in Shawn the Agent vs Shawn the Trainer.

Anyhow, thanks for checking in and sorry for the long winded intro; when I do something, I tend to go all in.