New Member Intro from SoCal

[Jeanelle Ignacio]

Hi everyone!  I am so impressed by the wealth of information on this site.  I wanted to introduce myself, share my story and hope to network and learn from many of you in this group.

Professionally, I've been a Registered Nurse since 2001.  I have focused my career in critical care and enjoy teaching and mentoring future nurses.  I currently work full time in the medical device industry but looking forward to my next phase.  My husband and I have been involved in several businesses in health care and currently own "The Press" in Pomona, CA which is a screen printing and embroidery business specializing in graduation stoles/sashes.  

I consider myself a REI newbie but have always had an interest in this subject. When I was a broke nursing student searching for ways to fund my college and support my child (I was a young mom), I read this book Deals on Wheels by Lonnie Scruggs about flipping mobile homes. Long story short, I was able to purchase a mobile home repo in a great area for 17K and was able to see it at double the price with only a deep clean and interior paint job. That's where I was able to secure my down payment on my first home not too long after finishing nursing school. Granted that was 20 years ago but I decided to focus on my nursing career. Between my husband and I, outside of our primary home in San Dimas, CA we also have 3 SFR rentals. Our best cash flowing rental is a 5 bedroom home we rent by room. Our other rental is with college students, and the third with a family. We've been blessed to really not having any vacancy. Some folks do not like renting to college students, but we've had great success with that. Our business in Pomona also deals primarily with colleges, so we always have so many students looking for housing in our area.

Future goal is to grow our real estate assets.  I'd like to retire from my job but be able to just teach part time in a nursing college and help my husband build our businesses.  I'd like to focus on increasing cash flow from real estate to eventually retire from my 9-5.  I'd like to purchase a 4-plex next but also open to short-term rentals in the Oregon coast area.  I look forward to meeting and learning with you all!

[Steven Foster Wilson]

Hi Jeanelle, welcome to BiggerPockets! This is surely the best place to start networking and learning. I always recommend the book “Rich dad, Poor dad” by Robert T. Kiyosaki to anyone starting out. Start listening to the BiggerPockets podcast starting at the very beginning. Start growing your network, look on Facebook/BiggerPockets for different events, find a mentor doing what you want to do, and get to know the local lenders/brokers. All the best to your real estate journey!