Overdue Intro-REI in Shreveport/ Bossier City, LA

[Justin Kilgore]

Hello to all my fellow forums members!

My name is Justin Kilgore and I’ve been lurking the forums and blogs for some time now. Thus, I feel my introduction is long overdue. I lurked for some time before I finally took the action to register and acknowledge I need to be more active here. The amount of useful information found on the BP forums is almost overwhelming. I’m still trying to digest it along with all the other reading I’ve been crunching on the last 5 months. I’m almost caught up on all the podcasts!

With that, I’d like to give a big thanks to the forum members and everyone else who makes this place possible. This is a great community and I hope someday I’ll be able to give back at least half as much as I’ve taken in from here.

About me:
I’m originally from the NE Texas area. Born and raised about an hour NE of Dallas. I had a four year enlistment as active duty Navy and loved every minute of it. I’ve been in Southern and now Northern Louisiana for a total of almost 15 years now, the last 4 have been in the Shreveport/Bossier City area. I’ve been working in Supply Chain Management (primarily purchasing) for the last 15 years. I will be getting married in August of this year!

I’ve had an interest in RE for some time now but have only begun to learn more for about the last 12 months. My only actual previous experience in RE is working through the 3 transactions for my own primary residences. My initial plan was to be a buy and hold investor. Buy and hold is still part of the plan, but I’ve elected to start by flipping and eventually keeping 1 in 3-4 flips as a rental.

Moving forward:
One of the things I’ve taken away from several of the forum members and podcasts is to not get caught up in analysis paralysis and/or fail to take action. I’ve been working to make sure that I do take action and that I’m setting myself up for RE success.

The first part involves networking with other local investors and attending the local REIA meetings. In addition, BP members @Jeff M and @Michael Faulk have worked to set up the first BP meet up for our area tonight and I'll be there. I've also been able to link up with a local broker who is also an investor and was interested in guiding me through my first flip. I've currently got my first property under contract and will be closing on it tomorrow. In addition, I'm about 25% of the way through my pre-licensing course!

I’m looking forward to continuing to learn and becoming a successful real estate investor.