Hey Hey Hey! New ATX Investor here!!!

[Andrew Caris]

Hello Everyone! I posted an introduction a while back but got taken down due to me being new to the forums and not being aware of the rules yet (rookie move). But I am from right outside a small town in Northwest Ohio, and moved to Austin on July 1st of this year! In Ohio, I worked as a Subcontractor/Carpenter for roughly eight years (two years being mostly summer work due to being out of state for college). Over the past four years in Ohio I studied Real Estate Investing extensively reading multiple books, watching videos, listening to podcasts, and even ended up getting my Ohio Real Estate License as well. I worked as a Realtor for a couple month's before realizing that the Toledo, Ohio market was not the market I wanted to be in. I wanted more. MY dream is bigger than my hometown, and I knew I couldn't do what I wanted to do with Real Estate there so I made the decision to move down here with a best friend who was already living here and has similar dreams within the Real Estate world. Eventually, after making some preparations and taking care of some responsibilities in Ohio, I made the move down with my truck, a trailer, and a couple hundred bucks in my bank account. There was a major setback that caused me to start from scratch, that I briefly mention later in this post in my answer to question 3 for the new member posts. 

For the new member questions: 

1. I'm now based in Austin, Texas and look forward to doing most of my investing in the Austin market and the surrounding areas! 

2. My goal with BiggerPockets is to get connected with people who can share in my knowledge and love of Real Estate and elevate it to the next level. I have all the tools required to do renovations to houses and a truck as well. I have already met some pretty great people since I've moved here a little over four months ago and look forwarding to meeting more and making more connections! 

3. A fun fact about myself.. well, I love to golf and disc golf (any golf course is my happy place) but lets go with something a little more interesting.. this wasn't really fun for me I guess, but you may get a kick out of it. I actually bought my first fixer-upper with my now ex-girlfriend and had it about 85% renovated and had potential to make really good money on it, but then a little thing called heartbreak got in the way and spoiled that. Long story short, she is now the legal owner of a pretty much fully-renovated house that she will profit very well from. Yes everyone.. that means I bought a house to flip with my ex-girlfriend and believed in the love we had enough to let her be the only one with her name on the title.. (the time to roast me would be now). But we all learn from our mistakes, and that was by far my biggest mistake in the Real Estate world. Not only did I clear out all my investments to pay for renovations to the house (that I did mostly all the labor to except plumbing), I also nearly emptied out my bank accounts to fund it, and now she gets to cash in on all the profit made from it whenever she sells. But as much of a loss as I took from it, it was also a HUGE learning lesson for me. I now know to go into deals more cautiously and with more thought. I hope you guys get a good laugh out of that story! 

As you guys can tell from my short story above, I had my first experiences with fixing and flipping in Ohio and was doing pretty well with it up until the conflict started. If everything had gone expected, I would've made good money on my first flip, but as we all know in real estate (and life), nothing is certain. My lifetime goal is to become a mentor to others in Real Estate Investing and help take people from unfortunate living situations/circumstances and putting them in position to succeed in the most beautiful and powerful industry in the world: Real Estate. I have a lot to my story that I would love to share with anyone who is interested, and also would like to use it as a motivation for others to follow in similar footsteps. My life has been a rocky road with plenty of ups and downs and also well-learned lessons. I look forward to connecting with everyone and hope to cross paths with many of you who are out there hustling!

So with all that being said, I am super happy to be here in Austin, Texas making connections with everyone and learning from the best in the business on BiggerPockets! Let's make some money and change some lives together!!