New Member from Chicago!

[Tony Goodwin]

Hey guys!

My name is Tony, and I've been in Chicago for about 2 years now. I grew up and went to school in Memphis, TN, but I moved here after college to study improv at The Second City. So when I'm not performing in shows around town, I'm either working as a researcher for an online construction publication or helping lead a student ministry at my church here in the city.

In my current role at work I have the ability to listen to the BP podcasts while I work, which I've really taken advantage of the past couple of weeks and my interest in real estate investing has grow significantly! Ultimately I want to invest in buy and hold properties for long term, passive income, but right now I'm focusing on wrapping my head around wholesaling. At first it was because it seemed to be the easiest, but now I see it has the potential to be a great way to learn about the world of real estate investing while giving me a larger margin for error since I know there's a good chance I'll mess up a lot in the beginning. Then later down the road when I begin investing in the buy and hold properties I hope to have a great marketing funnel to help find those deals that can work best for me in that venture!

I'm excited to be hear and connect with you all, specifically those in Chicago and/or Memphis since those are the markets I'm interested in investing!

[Curt Davis]

Welcome

[Jarrett Harris]

Wow that is a pretty diverse back ground you have going.

Welcome.

[Chris Clothier]

Welcome @Tony Goodwin ! You've found a great resource here online. Where did you grow up and go to school in Memphis?

Be sure to reach out if you want any help/advice on navigating the site. Best to you -

Chris

[Courtney Taylor]

Hi,

I am from Memphis as well. I graduated from Ridgeway High in 2004. What school did you attend? I'm a realtor and investor here in Memp Here's my contact info in case I can ever help you with anything.

Courtney Taylor

Welcome!

[Tony Goodwin]

Hey @Chris Clothier I went to White Station and University of Memphis! I'll have to be in Chicago for the next year or so, but I'm giving consideration to moving back home in the future to begin the longer term investments. It's my hope to learn as much as I can and begin with some smaller investments here in Chicago before making that decision.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

[Tony Goodwin]

Hey @Courtney Taylor looks like our schools were rivals! I graduated from White Station in 2008. I appreciate the welcome!

[Joey Nakayama]

Welcome @Tony Goodwin ! Always nice to see a fellow Chicagoan join BP. @Brie Schmidt organizes a regular meetup in the city, which is great way to connect with others on a similar RE journey as well as potential business partners.

[Timothy C.]

Welcome! I'm in the suburbs of Chicago, but it's great to hear from the community in the area.

[James Wise]

Welcome to the site Tony.

[Timothy Riley]

Welcome...

[Tony Goodwin]

Hey Joey Nakayama thanks for the heads up! Do you happen to know when the next meet up will be? If not I'm sure I'll hear about it on here!

[Joey Nakayama]

@Tony Goodwin the next meetup should be sometime mid-May, last I heard. Connect with @Brie Schmidt to find out when the next date is set.

If you haven't already, you can also set "Chicago" as one of your keyword alerts to be notified whenever it's mentioned in the forum. Good way to find others BP members in the city and learn about what's happening here.

[Christopher Leon]

Hi Tony Goodwin I'm from west suburbs of Chicago and organize the Chicago Area REIA www.meetup.com/CAREIA. You mentioned buying and holding but are going to start with wholesaling? A smart man once told me that the quickest way from point A to point B is by a straight line; so, you should really focus on where you want to be, what you want to do, find someone who is also doing it that you click with, and seriously do whatever they suggest to you and mimic what they do if you want their results. Wholesaling is cool, but if your not a hardcore salesman, know how to operate a sales business (meaning prospect, get leads, convert leads to sales) your going to get swallowed up. Not to mention you need to learn the market well enough to understand what IS a good deal and then get it under contract and sell someone else on the idea that it's a good deal. If it were me, and at one point it was, I would want to be building a business where there is LESS competition with a specific or niche product that is in higher demand. Work within your strengths and don't just try to grab at low hanging fruit. I been in this business for a long time and have YET to meet a for real successful wholesaler. Everyone mistakes wholesaling's simple process for an easy task, and the truth is, it's hard as hell. If your going to buy and hold property, do it. Don't dick around with wholesaling cause it seems easy. Get yourself into a local REIA, or wherever, meet some people you would like to emulate in terms of the business they have built or are building, and follow their lead. This will effectively cost you nothing, you'll build great relations, AND you will get the chance to learn the real market because you'll be rolling with some folk actually doing deals. This is exactly the way I did it, now, what works for me may not work for you but the fact is if your trying to buy and hold do exactly that, wholesaling one deal a month or taking 40 hrs for one deal to make a small amount is not worth anyone's time in my opinion. If you concentrate on the pennies, your going to miss the dollars! You'll learn much more if you borrow some money, pick up a small condo/studio, fix it up and rent it then manage it. Best thing you can do for yourself, let other wholesalers bring you deals and concentrate on your goal: buy and holding. Good luck, it's a wild market we got on our hands.

[Christopher Leon]

One last thing, if your real serious about this business, go get a real estate license and really do some deals. You can learn more about the RE business by just learning the rental market and moving some rental units then moving garbage via unlicensed activities. Hope I didn't crap on your ambition here, no answer is perfect so don't just take my word for it. Figure it out for yourself, but I thought you should know since your new to our market and new to the biz. Wholesaling is cool, but you had better be a certain type of individual to pull it off and ACTUALLY net a profit at the end of the year.

[Brandon Turner]

Hey @Tony Goodwin Welcome! Definitely start jumping into the community here! Be sure to read through The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing to help you get started.

Finally -be sure to setup some keyword alerts - especially for "Chicago" so you can jump into local conversations.

See you around the forums!

[Courtney Taylor]

No problem! I graduated from the University of Memphis in 2010. Man, we may have had some classes together. Small small world. Yea our high schools were rivals. I played football, so I remember the rivalry. Lol

[Tony Goodwin]

@Joey Nakayama thanks for the info! I look forward to the next meet up!

[Tony Goodwin]

Hey @Christopher Leon thanks so much for that info! You definitely didn't crap on my ambition ha ha. I thought that was some really solid advice, and I guess my reasoning for wanting to look into wholesaling more instead of going straight to buy and hold was to learn a little about the industry while hopefully earning some capital to then invest in properties down the road.

But I like what you suggested about not trying to take the long way around and stay in a straight line for what I'm ultimately wanting to do, so do you have any suggestions for ways I can be active in the market while I raise funds? I plan to learn as much as possible and network with others in the industry, but I guess I'm asking is there anything I can be doing in addition to building that team and those relationships?

Thanks!

[Stephen Akindona]

Welcome to BP!!!!!!

Tons of great people on the site that will really help you out if you ask!! So ask, no question is too remedial!!

[Christopher Leon]

Absolutely @Tony Goodwin First, surround yourself around people in the business at your local REIA, meet ups, chamber of commerce, auction steps, the nearest McDonalds or common restaurant right after the auction because thats where investors go to discuss their successes and failures, etc and MEET these people to build your network. Learn what these people are looking for in terms of deals. A lot of people are unrealistic so you should take what their saying with a grain of salt, but just use common sense, be polite, and LISTEN! You should be doing this all the time if your gonna be in this business, you need to fully absorb yourself in my opinion. Next, ask your friends where they want to live (North side, south side, loop, Wrigley, Bucktown, etc) and ask why? understand that those people, your friends, ARE the market! Especially, if they have good credit, income, and stable employment because that's who most landlords want to rent too. These people will help you have insight to a portion of the market you want to concentrate your efforts in, I would then scour craigslist and go apartment/condo hunting and get a feel for the market. Dont rent a place if you dont need one, but do this is reconnaissance to get a feel for floor plans, specific features, amenities that you think the market (your friends) would like. Do this twice a month on a saturday to learn the market FREE OF CHARGE (less the cost of a Latte from "Fivebucks" (Starbucks) of course. Once you have done this enough and have learned a specific area of where you live, you should get real comfortable with rent prices, whats outrageous and whats right; then figure out what something like that costs, run the numbers and determine a yield on the property. Do this all over until you understand what units net more! Once you understand this segment of the market, you know what is a good buy and hold unit. Managing is a whole other issue, but focus on this part and you'll have something to talk about to other investors and maybe you can wholesale a deal, or maybe you can partner up with someone who has cash, and you can acquire the asset, fix it up if needed, and rent the sucker out! BOOM! I just made you a million dollars, now go get it!

[Account Closed]

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! I am just starting out, as well, and have found a ton of useful info on this site. Another member recommended that I read "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller. I highly recommend it - it's a great read! Best of luck to you!

[Larry Smet]

Welcome @Tony Goodwin

Don't forget to ask lots of questions (after you google them on BP) in the forums, read some every day and most critically start to take a little action every day.

Good luck

Larry

[Tony Goodwin]

Thanks @Christopher Leon for that awesome advice! That's way more than I thought I could do while I build up capital and read and such. I really appreciate how thorough you were!