Newbie from snowy Centennial, Colorado!

[Galina Derevyanko]

Hi there, hope you all have better weather today than we experience here in Denver! It is snowing and snowing and snowing... So I am thinking on starting investing in real estate somewhere in Caribbean. Any advice? LOL

Seriously, real estate investing was my long term dream, and recently my fiancee (I divorced 5 years ago after 28 years of what I was thinking was a perfect marriage, and had to reinvent myself from scratch - you got the picture!) bought a fixer-upper and by now the ugly property has been transferred into a gem. It's like a magic! I always set goals in the beginning of the year, and I have decided 2015 will be the year to finally start my own REI! I have my family and friends full support, I have a team of experienced contractors, I have a long time employment and a great credit score to obtain financing. All I need is knowledge and network. Two weeks ago, I attended three day Rich Dad Poor Dad seminar on REI - have mixed feelings about the whole experience, but it gave me the basics. For the last two weeks I have read several books, and subscribed to several services to get listings. Yesterday I found a great property I want to buy! This morning I spent several hours researching hard money lenders, and somehow found BiggerPockets - glad I did! Then I spent some time trying to upload my profile picture from my iPad on the site, until I found out that you only can do it using a computer. (Dear web developer! If an ability to add a profile picture via app or mobile version of the website is restricted for a reason, please add a pop-up message when you click on a picture to change it... it will save a lot of frustration for us future real estate investors. But less and less people use computers to navigate Internet, and it is much easier to do with a phone: take a selfie - upload it to your profile. Just a thought :)

That's pretty much it. I am looking forward to meet great people here, and excited to have a trusted forum of peers who can provide each other with support! 

Stay warm, everyone!

Galina