Newbie from Houston TX, relative newbie in the country as well! :-)

[Gordon S.]

Hey all,

I’m Gordon from Houston and I’ve only lived here for 2 years. I have lived in 3 countries, America being the final one, well hopefully! I have always been following the local property trends in these countries because I have always had an interest in property and property investment.

America is eventually giving me the opportunity to start investing in property and I was so glad to find this treasure trove of property investing on the net. It really is a treasure, as one would be paying for this kind of information in Europe.

I have been through some “scams” in Europe, noting the “Inside Track” experience…all hyped-up selling: “Oooooh-look-at-me-I-bought-a-Ferrari-after-investing-for-six months” nonsense…luckily I got out of that quickly and without financial loss and learned that there is only one way of doing this and that is the hard and difficult way, doesn’t matter what country you’re living in.

I’m a complete newbie, except if you count buying and building our pre-planned subdivision house in Houston. I was onsite nearly everyday, because I wanted to learn as much as possible about:

1 – The building process in USA.

2 – Building methods in Texas.

3 – General relationship between building companies and their clients – which was horrendous by the way.

4 – General relationship between the builder and the general contractors.

5 – The buying process and dealing with mortgage companies and banks.

I learned a lot from this process, but I also recognize that building and buying your own home and investing in other properties is completely different story.

I’m here to learn, make friends and hopefully some deals.

My plan is to start flipping homes first. This is because I want to learn more about dealing with contractors, mortgage companies, legal requirements and the pitfalls that come along with this process. I also have a general interest in construction and engineering and I think flipping homes is a good mix of these 2 interests and will be fun to do!

Long term I would like to continue flipping and then to buy some rentals once I have decent capital, as I would prefer to not rely on too many loans.

I have already bought a few of the books mentioned on this site and is in the process of reading them and the guides that are available on this site.

Anyhow, thanks to all the people that make this website possible, it really is a great place for information sharing and gathering and I hope to be able to help and assist other potential investors in a couple of months…