New Member from Pinellas County, Florida

[James Holloman]

Good morning all, my name is James Holloman, I am new to real estate investing but have some experience. We purchased our first home in 2010, spent 3 years fixing it up and sold it last month after realizing we had outgrown it. My wife, our four sons, and I were crammed into 1300+ square feet. We did ok though (up 18%) and were able to pay off debt and put ourselves in a better situation for our next home.

I was brought to BiggerPockets through a web of search links while researching my current situation. I have an opportunity to by my wife's childhood home from her mother by buying out her brother and sister. Essentially paying 2/3's the value of the house to her mother’s trust and gaining significant equity right away. There are currently two tenants living in two of the rooms in the house for very low rent that I would need to find new homes for before I could purchase... hence the sped up interest in real estate investing. :)

I am 31 years old and am medically retired from the Army where I spent 6 years as an Intelligence Analyst and served in Korea, Louisiana, Iraq, Florida and Arizona. I now work for the Department of Veterans Affairs helping hospital staff write contracts for large multi-year purchases. I'm also a proud member of the Rotary Club of Dunedin Waterside, a group of younger Rotarians (20's, 30's and 40's) who are active in helping out in the community and come from all different career fields.

I hold a Bachelors in Management from Saint Petersburg College where I did my Capstone in how investing in multi-unit properties, targeting Section 8 participants and renovating the units as "green" as you can get, can be used as a long term investment tool while helping low income families through normal rental rates but lowered utility costs. I am still interested in implementing this now that Section 8 and other programs like HUD-VASH housing supplements for Veterans are more common and a decent source of steady income if you find the right properties. The problem was the math never provided significant cash flow so it would only work as a long-term wealth building strategy, not a business.

After SPC I continued my education and in 2012 received my MBA from the University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg College of Business.

My investment goals in Real Estate are primarily long term. I would like to start building a portfolio of investment properties (Buy & Hold) to help build wealth. I'm also interested in Tax Lien investing; Florida’s process with the lien not granting property rights is fine if the interest rate is decent. With a full time job I am hesitant to take on the risks of Flipping and don't have the time to focus on Wholesaling.

I have my first book on the way now, "Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes and Quads" by Larry Loftis; a recommendation I took off the BP recommended books list. I will probably add another book per month until I start running out of recommendations in my areas of interest.

I realize it’s a long post but it is nothing compared to how much I have already learned just from reading thread after thread over this last week here and I am looking forward to learning a lot more in the coming months and years.