Hello from Portland, OR

[Corey Westermann]

Hi BP, I'm Corey.  I'm happy to be here and figured it was time I introduced myself and get a little more involved.

I'm 33, self employed, and I've got 3 kids. My businesses and kids (all 3 are under 4yrs old) keep me very busy, but I see real estate as a way to build a kind of financial independence that will eventually make me less busy and better able to provide for my family.

I currently own 3 SFRs in the Portland metro area with near term plans to add #4 and 5. I have a buy and hold philosophy with the goal of long term cash flow. I manage the properties myself. 

Some thoughts I'm currently kicking around that I'd love input on: 

1 - I'd like to start an LLC to hold my properties as well as a separate LLC to manage my properties. I have a personal umbrella policy but have been told many times that's insufficient. I'm unsure whether I should keep each house in a seperate LLC (Oregon doesn't have a series LLC option as far as I know).

2 - Property here is freakin expensive! Without a big down payment it's tough to make a SFR cash flow in my area (no such thing as the 2% rule here as far as I can tell). Aside from investing far outside of my area or buying a POS (neither of which really interest me) I don't see many alternatives to just saving up a big stack of cash to put down to keep the mortgage payment smaller than the rent. While I'm ok with this strategy, it's SLOOOOW and hard to be patient - especially when I listen to the BP podcast and hear all these guys buying $60k properties that they can turn around a rent for $1k/mo.

3 - I'm interested in finding a Portland real estate investor group or meetup in my area to plug into and was hoping that there might be one you guys could recommend. I'm currently living in SE.

4 - I want to get my real estate license, not so that I can act as an agent for others - but so that I can get access to the MLS and for ease of getting in to see prospective properties. I've been told that getting my license can increase my responsibilities as an investor quite a bit and would appreciate your thoughts on why it is or isn't worth it.

Thanks in advance for welcoming me here.