Regards from the Pacific Northwest!

[Jeremy Magin]

Hello everyone! I’ve been browsing BP for a couple of weeks now, have read the BP Beginners guide to Real Estate Investing, and am loving the educational phase of my journey. My wife and I recently moved to Washington state from Colorado and are both working near Seattle. We are currently renting a home in Maple Valley. Our landlord is a Buy & Hold investor with over 50 properties in his portfolio, I’m taking care of some of the leftover projects around the house for him which has been a great deal for both of us.

I was bitten by the Real Estate bug last year when the short sale home we purchased in 2009, which we spent 5 years rehabbing in our spare time, brought us just under $80,000 in profit and allowed us to pay off ALL of our debt (minus student loans). This would have taken MUCH longer if we had tried to pay these bills off using the income from our jobs. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mind but never knew where to direct my energy. The financial impact this one deal brought made me realize I could do great things in Real Estate if pursued correctly.

I have always been mechanically inclined but had never worked on houses before. It was a great chance for me to learn housing repairs inside and out and now I see huge potential in marrying my skills with future real estate deals.

The experience of owning a short sale taught me:

1. 1) I have the ability to recognize a property with potential. Out of the 30+ properties we looked at, over a period of 6 months, the house we made an offer on had an amazing layout (felt bigger than it really was), and had been on the market for over 90 days without an offer because most people couldn’t see that the repairs it needed were minor/cosmetic. I fired the first 2 agents we worked with after they began to pressure us into going for properties that needed too much work, or were well above our price range. A coworker of mine bought a short sale a week after we did, but spent 5 years fighting structural and building code issues because he didn’t know what to look for. He broke even on his deal.

1. 2) Real estate can lead to the “financial freedom” I have been looking for. In one deal, I made more money than I’ve ever seen in a salary, even after spending 6 years earning my BS Degree at night while working full time. I know this isn’t always the case, but it CAN happen. I did the math and with over 14 years in my profession, busting my butt to climb the corporate ladder, my salary has only increased roughly 5% per year while benefits are slowly taken away.

1. 3) I still have a lot to learn. I am excited to find a niche that matches my goals, and to become as educated as possible so I don’t walk into my first deals blindly. I’d like to meet like-minded people and develop a strategy that results in replacing my income with positive cashflow produced by a solid portfolio. I am absolutely a giver and will always offer my services to reciprocate any guidance I’m given.

The bottom line is I'm really glad to have found a community like this one and am excited to learn, explore the Washington State RE market, and to get to know all of you. Are there any local REI groups near Seattle/Maple Valley/Bellevue/Issaquah that you'd recommend I join to get started? I'm all about strength in community.

All the best,

Jeremy Magin