Newbie Investor from San Antonio, TX

[Kyle Handy]

Hey BP!  I just stumbled across this site a couple weeks ago and couldn't be happier.  The wealth of knowledge that's available on this site is amazing!  I've been immersed in reading all the threads, blogs, eBooks, and listening to the podcasts as much as I can.

My wife and I are looking to get into the real estate investing market ASAP.  I'm a realtor here in San Antonio (have been for 6.5 years).  I just started my own brokerage, last year in November.  It's been going well and I've grown more than I thought was possible in my first year.  That said, I know retail real estate isn't something I want to do forever.  I'm much more a numbers person and love investing, finding deals, and capitalizing on them. All my friends and family are always surprised at the things I'm able to buy/come across (but it's always because I'm looking for a deal and most of the time, making money on it).  That's just the type of person I am. 

I'm 28 years old, married to my beautiful wife, Krissi and we just had our first child, a little girl, who is now 6 weeks old, Addison. I graduated with my Business Finance degree here at UTSA in 2008 and went straight into Real Estate.  I was born in Washington D.C. but have lived in San Antonio since I was 5.

I'm not sure what I'm focused on right now.  I've been contemplating flipping but know eventually buy/hold is where it will be at for me.  Since I've only been self-employed for 1 year, traditional financing is still 1 year away.  And the private investing I've found does not seem buy/hold friendly.  I think this is leading me towards the flipping side for at least the next year. 

I just put in an offer on a property in the MLS that's corporate owned. I haven't seen it yet but put in the contract a 7 day inspection period. The numbers seem good and I think they are undervaluing the property as the listing agent put the home in the wrong neighborhood (it's actually in the neighborhood across the street which has higher dollar homes). Also, they only have the home 500 sqft smaller than what the tax records show as they are not accounting for the converted garage. I've verified with the tax record both the correct neighborhood and sqft. Hoping the offer goes through!

I look forward to be a contributing member of BP. I'm sure for a while it will mostly be me asking a bunch of questions and reading threads, but once my REI investing knowledge grows, I'll be happy to reciprocate the advice and start chiming in on other's threads.

-Kyle