Hello BP Community from Denver, CO!

[Chanté Owens]

Hello BP community! I'll try not to shave too many years off your lives with my introduction, but it's going to be a long one, so I can cover the bases!

I'm not currently an investor...yet, but I had a "serious discussion" month with myself in June, where I decided to evaluate EVERYTHING I was doing at this time, and figure out everything : Current state? Short term goals? Long term goals, and then figure out realistically how I would achieve those goals, and everything came around to ----- Real Estate.

I've been reading BP for over five or six months now, and while I have two very close friends in real estate (one in AZ, one in Cali), I do not pretend to know anything about it, nor do I plan to be as aggressive as a lot of people here with flipping and such; however, I do understand that if leveraged effectively, it can help me reach my ultimate goals, while also doing some wealth building as a nice bonus.

I left the insurance industry about five years ago to pursue some other endeavors, such as starting my own travel agency; doing freelance writing around food and travel, and launching a website all about women in the culinary industry. I'm glad I did, because the work I've done, and continue to do really helped me realize what I am passionate about - helping small business owners realize their dream of business ownership; specifically around the hospitality industry, ie, restaurants, bars, taverns and B&B's and boutique hotels, and business owners who lease space in commercial strip mall developments.

So...with that in mind, and my soul searching in the month of June; I decided to jump back into insurance, but work in the area I liked the most, which was assisting my policyholders. I recently obtained my P&C (property & casualty) Insurance Producers license, and will forge ahead with writing insurance policies for commercial business owners. I have a vast knowledge within the insurance industry, as I was in claims for many years; worked in regulatory compliance, and even managed in collections of premium audits in a Finance division, so I pretty much have a 360 degree viewpoint of the insurance industry. Also, I am an Independent Arbitrator for FINRA, so that also keeps me abreast of regulatory issues, while continually honing my negotiation skills.

What I want to do is continue to learn from BP, and eventually (in two years or less) purchase an owner-occupied multi-family unit (duplex or triplex) and live there, and then eventually purchase a commercial property to house my insurance business, and rent space to other businesses who can assist small business owners, like attorney's, cpa's and the like. Ultimately, I want to use these investments as collateral to open my own wine bar(s) and a boutique hotel of my own. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm invested in this and doing everything humanly possible to achieve this goal.

I look forward to answering any questions that anyone may have in respect to insurance. Even if I don't know the answer, I have a lot of colleagues and friends still in various aspects of the insurance industry, and they are highly knowledgeable. I am willing to help anyone, because I know insurance can leave a bad taste in your mouth, but as me and my colleagues used to say, "Insurance is what you wished you had, when you failed to have it." Having the wrong or inadequate insurance policy is almost worse than not having insurance at all.

I currently live in the Denver area, but will be relocating to the Pacific Northwest region (likely to Seattle/surrounding area, since I won't be able to afford to live in Seattle when I first move there). I look forward to working with commercial realtors, as I will be building other components of my business in order to assist small business owners to locate and obtain financing for the lease or purchase of their business property.I'm excited, because I just ran across a great article about the SBA 504 loan program, and I'll be reading even more, so I can add value to those business owners that I work with.

I have this great community to thank for helping me realize that while I have some lofty goals, and a LOT of work ahead of me, anything is not impossible. I feel like I know some of you already, because I've read your words so frequently! I'm thankful for Paula Pant, who is a blogger here on BP, as well as one of her sites, Afford Anything. It is was through Paula's writings (and love for travel, like me) that I found my way to this wonderful and giving community. I'll jump in when I can, and I promise to (attempt) to ask intelligent questions. I look forward to when I post to the "Real Estate Success Stories" section!

Cheers from the Mile High State!