New Member from St. Paul MN!!

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Hey guys! My name is Matt Ruggiero and I moved to the twin cities back in December 2012 for a new job at 3M. I am a mining engineer with project engineering background for a few different mines around the country, and have found myself a nice corporate desk job with a great company! Sure beats living in the boonies. I am originally from Buffalo NY and went to school at Virginia Tech.

My finance and I lived near Mears Park in downtown St. Paul and just bought our (and my) first house in Oakdale MN (suburb of STP), and after some painting, a new dry bar, and a few updates to the bathrooms, we are extremely happy with the way the house looks! We wanted a move in ready house and that's exactly what we got. I definitely learned a lot from that experience, but saw how awesome the tax benefits and equity potential were and started thinking about real estate investing. But with buying my first house and getting engaged all in the same year, I have spent the last six months rebuilding my emergency savings account (which is 85% back to full). I am also getting married in July 2015, so more expenses on the way I'm sure.

My goal is to find a mentor and possible partner(s) in the twin cities area to begin achieving some of my real estate investing goals. I have an absolutly awesome real estate agent who I am also thinking about working with. I have great skill with budgeting, project engineering and planning, and a good understanding of the local StP suburbs and where people (especially young professionals like myself) would like to rent and what a nice place would look like. I have been an investor in the stock market for about 7 years and have experience in returns and know some lingo. I plan on learning the area, what sells and what doesn't, what type of single family homes I want, etc until I have enough money to buy my first investment property. I then plan on renting it out to a young professional and hiring a management company to take care of the house, as I want to keep my 9-5 and do not plan on working as a landlord and am not handy enough to do any work on the house. As my money refills each year, I will probably buy one a year and begin owning multiple residencies to rent out.

I'm very excited to start my investing path and look forward to talking with you guys!
Matt