Semi-newbie from New York City. 1 property in Atlanta.

[Matthew L.]

Hi all!

I'm Matt and I've been reading the forums for a few weeks, burning through the BP podcasts and figured it was time to introduce myself.

I'm 29 and live in Queens, NY and work in claims for an insurance company. I first started reading books about real estate investing in high school but got sidetracked with all the fun of being a twentysomething in NYC (probably could have bought 5 houses in cash with all the $ I blew on partying, sigh). I finally took the plunge and bought my first investment property last year in Atlanta: a $165k 1br loft that rents for $1,400/month. It cash flows about $375/month after expenses. I hear all the time that making that first purchase is the biggest step to overcome and doing that has only increased my desire to become a full time REI.

My ultimate goal is to own enough single and multifamily rentals to generate at least $7,000/month of net income. I'd like to reach that goal by the time I'm 40. In the short term, I am very interested in taking on the challenge of doing some flips to fund the purchase of rentals.

I've lived in NYC my whole life and am definitely in need of a change of scenery to push myself outside of my comfort zone. Not only that, but NYC and surrounding areas are definitely not the place to be for an investor starting out without deep pockets so I'm looking into moving to a city with much lower housing prices. Whether that will be Atlanta since I already have a unit there or another city remains to be seen, but I'm hoping to make the move within the next year.

Looking forward to being an active member of the community and hopefully I will be able to contribute!

-Matthew Lobacz