Finally Ready! Newbie in the East Bay Area! Hi!

[Joshua Durrin]

Wow BPers,

I finally did it! I finally completed my business plan and feel ready to make my intro and get going.

I've been cruising through these forums for a bit without having done a formal introduction until now. That's been on purpose... I wanted to make sure I was set to launch when I said my official hello.

Having read a number of blogs from the successful investors and seeing some common themes across them that I related to... tired of the corporate rat race, fed up with corporate incompetance and performance paralysis... I just couldn't have been more motivated. I was seeing myself in those blogs.

I too am an engineer currently. I've been in the corporate rat race long enough with mediocre growth despite being damn good at what I do (not to toot my own horn). I'm in my mid-30s and feel like my hour glass is being drained with little control of my own freedom. I don't feel free. I can't get ahead, despite how much I've given to my corporate slave-drivers, largely due to the politics and backstabbing that exists in those environments. Ugh... I'm just at the end of my rope already with that stuff... like many others that get started in real estate investing... that I just have to do something else and take the reigns of my own destiny with conviction.

And today, I've just achieved a major milestone in doin so. I COMPLETED MY BUSINESS PLAN! And I cannot tell you how exciting that is! I've spent the last several years conceptualizing on getting into real estate... reading a ton of books, got my real estate broker license, tripped up on trying to be a retail broker and an engineer for a brief episode, looked at properties and got paralysed in the analysis... and this time it's different. No more distractions... no more thinking off the top of my head trying to figure out what to do... no more losing focus on what my objective is... and FINALLY having a clear written goal and a plan to accomplish it.

My plan starts out with a mission statement summarizing my goals and objective and captures my spirit in how I want to run the business. This is crucial to quickly getting me refocused on my goals, plan, and character of which I need to uphold in my business (greed can quickly turn a person ugly). From there I've identified immediate goals (first 90 days), first year goals, and second year goals. I've identified a target market and developed a plan for finding leads in several niches over a phased approach hoping to capitalize on at least one of them. I've identified critical business needs that enable me to function without overstretching my short term budget (building in longevity to my plan). I've written down a series of financing strategies (or entry strategies in my low capital position) and developed a plan on how to build my network of the various types of lenders. I've even included a series of exit strategies as an alternative to my planned primary buy and hold one. I have a plan for locating quality investment buyers (being active in BP is included). And I have a plan to find and network with other key players in the industry that are crucial to my success as well in this business (equally important is my support of them as well).

I'm super excited to get up and running... FINALLY... and looking forward to joining the rest of you on the success podium. Your posts and questions have been super helpful in inspiring and enabling me to think critically about how to get into this business to stay. Time will be the true tell-tale I suppose. But I'm determined to be get there... and now I have a plan I can execute on.

I'm looking forward to getting out there and meeting you, virtually and otherwise. Thanks to those that have already so graciously offered me some advice and answered my "stupid" questions. I can't wait to be in a position to pay it forward.