I'm getting into the game

[John Dalton]

I am a surgeon in Atlanta.  I became interested in real estate about 7 years ago when my medical group began looking to buy an office condo.  The lease-buy analysis enthralled me.  I'm definitely a numbers/spreadsheet type.  We passed on the first deal, made offers on two other properties and ended up buying 1.5 acres with a closed restaurant near our hospital.  The project grew from putting a 20,000 sf building on the restaurant site in the middle of the property to putting a 50,000 sf building on half of the property and splitting off the back half for a second building (currently planned at 60,000 sf of medical office).  We had a development partner who helped us and I served as the liaison between the project manager and the other doctors.  It was a great learning experience and we quickly turned our relatively small investment into a bunch of equity.  

My brother and I have been talking about doing something for over a year and he introduced me to BP.  I have been stalking the posts, listening to podcast after podcast, and reading whatever real estate book I can get my hands on.  While I have only been on BP for a couple of weeks, I feel that the best way to learn is to get into the game so my brother and I bought a duplex on Friday.  While our goal is to own apartment buildings, we needed to start somewhere.  It meets the 2% and 70% rules and we have tenants lined up for when we finish the rehab.  The guy we bought it from is doing the rehab and selling it to us turn-key.  He has been an investor for a while and has a company that does everything from acquisition to rehab to PM.  He doesn't want to own any other properties this size as he is focused more on the construction and wholesaling side of his business.  So essentially he wholesaled it to us on the condition he does the rehab.  The numbers work and it saves us the headache of having to manage a rehab. So, while we might have been able to save a little on the rehab costs if we shopped contractors and managed it ourselves, the deal still swims.  We have already been talking to him about doing other similar deals.  

I also met a real estate agent in my area through BP who is just starting out as well.  We have sat down and figured out a plan on how we can each benefit the other in our investment goals.  It's been a productive 2 weeks on BP.

Long post for me to just say "Hi" and give a big THANK YOU to BP for providing the information and support to help us newbies move forward with confidence.  I know that as I hit the inevitable bumps in the road that BP will be there to help.