New member from Pittsburgh, PA area

[Steve Salvatore]

I've been investing in real estate since 2004 as a buy and hold investor. I've been on the conservative side of acquiring properties. I currently rent to college students in Pittsburgh and just sold one of my houses to a developer that approached the homeowners to buy 12 row homes. I did well on that property and sold the house for 4x what I paid in 2006. The deal was hard to pass up, but I learned that when dealing with investors that are buying a multiple properties at once, the process can take years. It was difficult to part with the house since it was very profitable. This deal closed 2 years after signing the original contract.

For this deal, I rolled the funds from the house into a 1031 exchange account and just signed a contract to buy a townhouse closer to my home in the Cranberry Township area. My goal for 2014 is to buy at least 2 properties for use as rental units. I've been hearing a lot about buying multi-unit properties and would like to explore buying one. I currently have a full-time job as a software developer and have 3 kids in sports, so I can't spend too much time rehabbing unless I sub out the work or find a partner.

What brought me to become a member is listening to the podcasts by Josh and Branden. I've been on the mailing list now for a few years and have read articles on the site. I'm learning a lot from the podcasts and have listened to about 7 podcasts so far while driving to work. I would like to reach out and meet some other investors in the Cranberry Township and Pittsburgh. I find it interesting listening to the podcasts to find out that there are many people working a full-time job and also accumulating rental properties.