New Investor Rochester NY

[Brian Dowling]

Hi! I am Brian Dowling from Fairport a suburb of Rochester NY. I work a full time job for a major corporation as a Facilities Manager of the largest Critical Data Center in upstate New York. I have prior experience in REI having Rehabbed (2) SFH's and GC'd a personal new SFH construction. I also have owned (2) investment condo's in the past and rented out a SFH.

Although it appears I have a decent background, it has been a while since I have been engaged on the personal side of REI. Due to a combination of events, divorce, condo investing, untimely market, loss of job all within 2 years of one another, I had managed to lose 50 % of my net worth and pretty much through in the towel on REI with the exception of my primary residence. With my family growing I changed gears and focused on my career and invested in the Stock Market for long term growth.

I stumbled upon Bigger Pockets while surfing the Net and have been reading the forums, blogs, and listening to BP Podcasts (so far up to 100), purchased a few books, especially love J. Scotts books on Flipping Houses and Estimating Rehab costs for the past 4 months. I wish I had the benefits of being a Bigger Pockets member years ago when I started, I believe I could have prevented some of my mistakes and possibly been a true REI success story.

I am excited to get back in the game again! With the majority of my assets being tied up in 401Ks and Roth IRA's I am looking into converting those Roth's into a Self Directed IRA with Checkbook control. This will give me the ability to make cash purchases right away without worrying about financing costs. I am interested in flipping houses and then converting them to SFH rentals with positive cash flow

I am very interested in Networking and would love to attend any local Rochester REI meetings or get together's, if any one has any more advice or comments please leave them, I look forward to restarting my REI career.