Hello from eastern PA...

[Dean Rinehart]

Thought I'd jump right in and ask all the dumb n00b questions. First though, I'll give some background.

My wife and I live in Bethlehem, PA, about 80 miles west of New York City and 50 miles north of Philly. Our city is enjoying a pretty boomy post-steeltown era thanks to lots of good small and medium sized business in the area. People are also watching for the late 2008 opening of an $879 million Sands slots casino project on the Bethlehem Steel brownfields...some eager, some not so. While I'd rather not have the old site turned into a casino, there is really noting else that can bring in that money, so I'm a big supporter.

We're the center of the Lehigh Valley, sharing space with Allentown and Easton. Growth is all over the place thanks to the influx of NY and NJ ex-pats looking for cheaper cost of living, though lately it feels like it's starting to even out a bit. Our cost of living has risen dramatically in the past 10 years.

My wife and I own an historic Tudor home on Prospect Avenue in one of the five nationally recognized historic districts in the city. I helped push for and eventually pass an overlay that requires historic board approval of exterior changes in order to preserve these prominent homes in our west side neighborhood. These 27 homes were all linked to the Bethlehem Steel heyday, mine was owned by F.C. Rabold, a vice president of the Steel and also by the founder of Just Born candy company Samuel Born (Some call it the Rabold House, some the Born House...and some even call it the Peep House after the marshmallow treat made by Just Born).

As for investement properties...well, our place is it right now. We have a guest house on the property that we rent out to our gardener. That's it. But we have at least $300,000 (possibly more) of equity in our house and talent for finding good properties. We want to put that equity to good use.

The local market seems ripe for buying homes, doing minor rehab and renting them out. I don't see myself as a flipper...I don't have time to work on anything but my own money pit. Maybe as I learn more I'll change my tune, but for now I'm thinking I'll buy up a few multifamilies and single homes and run with that.

I'm about as green as you can get regarding investment real estate, so that's why I'm here. I promise to search for as much info before I drop the daily dummie, but sometimes I'll probably just not know what to even search for.

Looking forward to spending a lot of time here and hopefully becoming a valued contributor.

--Dean