New Member- NE Ohio

[Eric Jelen]

Hi, my name is Eric.  I graduated from school about two years ago and I'm currently an engineer for a glass manufacturing company in Cleveland, Ohio.  

Since graduation, my interest in personal finance and investing has grown. I am debt free, created a safety fund, and have been contributing to my company's 401K and my own Roth IRA. My next goal is to start investing in real estate.

I have been listening to the biggerpockets podcast to and from work, and reading as many real estate books as I can get my hands on. I plan to start going to my local REIA.

After my initial research, residential multifamily homes seems like a good place to start investing. I am leaning toward using an FHA loan to fund the property and live in one of the units.

I have a lot more research to do about choosing a property, being a landlord, and building a team that I can rely on.

[Elizabeth Colegrove]

Welcome to Biggerpockets!

We got started the same way you are thinking about!

You came to the right place as there is tons of wealth and knowledge! We are buy and hold investors in single family homes. Specifically in class A investments so we can self manage while working demanding jobs. We also got started in renting out our home when we were transferred and the bug bit us.

We invest through two methods, pure rentals, and personals turned rentals. We love leverage so we highly leverage our houses for maximum potential. On the other hand we do not refinance our houses out to allow stability. We invest in areas were appreciation is higher than inflations. As our goal is for early retirement in 15 years :)

You will love the diverse community and all the resources. There are tons of methods and niches with everyone having different specialities. So a great place is to look around the blogs, forums and listen to the podcasts for different niches. If you see a post you enjoy check out the persons signature. Many of us including myself talk about our strategies, styles, niches and business model on our website. So definitely check that out as it is an amazing additional resource. For example, my blog is about while working full time, buy and hold investing, 0% Down Rentals, Personal Properties turned rentals, Long distancing investing, self-managing 3,000+ miles away. Definitely list your blog or website in your signature, if you have one. Its a great additional networking source.

Look forward to seeing and connecting with you around!