Greetings from South Florida

[Colin LaRose]

Hey BiggerPockets -

This is my official introduction to this site. I've gone through about 35 podcasts so far during my daily commutes, and I'm sick of Brandon and Josh telling me to introduce myself and get active on the forums (quick tip!) so here goes....

I'm on the cusp of starting a single-family flip here in Hollywood, FL. The numbers make sense to me. It beats the 70% rule by about 1-2%, and I'm excited to see this project through, make some money, learn a whole lot, and have it kickstart more RE dealings.

My day-job is in intellectual property, and I'm a part-time realtor, having been licensed for a year and a half. My long-term goal is to become a buy-and-hold investor. Someday, I would like to operate an investment brokerage, and perhaps an REIT. In the immediate future, however, I plan on primarily flipping single-family homes while building a track record and learning everything I can about the process. Along the way, I'd also like to pick up rental properties to hold and gain more experience as a landlord.

I have a BSEE and JD, but I am more intrigued by business and finance pursuits rather than engineering and law. My career path should have taken me to a big-city law firm working as a patent attorney, however, at some point I decided against that lifestyle. In 2010, I moved to Miami from DC, and within the past 3 months bought a house in Hollywood.

South Florida is probably not the easiest market to get started in. It seems like there is a ton of activity from investors and developers right now, and the competition to acquire investment properties is fierce. There are bandit signs galore in north Miami, and I believe cash sales are at an all-time high. In any event, I'm looking forward to getting started, networking, reading and posting on BP, completing flips, learning everything I can, and seeing where this takes me...

Best,

Colin LaRose