New member from Seattle area

[Howard Edson]

Greetings! I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Howard Edson. I'm a new member living on the east side of Seattle, just getting oriented to biggerpockets.com. 

I'm a mid-career professional making my living in the software industry. My wife Jennifer and I have two boys. We've owned our primary residence for many years but are just getting started in real estate investing.

My main focus is acquiring rentals, but I want to get good at doing flips as well, as this seems like a good way to generate the cash to acquire additional rentals. I've recently been attending meetings with a local foreclosure group called Vestus, and I feel like I'm no more than a few weeks away from making my first bids at an auction with them.

I have been reading books and am refining my model for assessing the economics of a deal before buying. I am considering becoming a licensed RE agent myself to support my investment activity. 

Looking forward to diving into the podcasts and kicking around on the forums, getting to know some of you, learn a bunch, and with luck someday soon I'll be in a position to start contributing some advice to the community from my own experience.