Hello from a new investor Columbus, OH

[Brandon Hartman]

Fellow BP’ers –

I figured it was long overdue that I make an introduction here and establish myself as part of this great community. As for the formalities, my name is Brandon Hartman, I am 29 years old and I live in Columbus, OH. I am a graduate of The Ohio State University (focused in Finance and Economics) and I currently work as a Financial Analyst. I have formed a partnership with a current work colleague (age 25), @Brandon Rohrbach. He currently works as a Strategy/Finance Analyst and attended the University of Michigan (focused in Finance and Marketing).  Against my better judgement as a Buckeye I decided that he, even as a Wolverine, would be a great business partner. After a few rounds of writing business plans and performing deep dive market research with the intentions of spinning up a startup together, by chance we discovered that we both share a great love and interest for Real Estate. From that point on, it was decided -- Real Estate was our play and now was a better time than ever to get started (isn’t it always!?)

By nature I am a perfectionist with a strong desire to be the best in anything I do. As a result of this personality trait (flaw?), I am very willing and able to maintain focus and work hard to achieve that greatness. Over the last 3 months, I am proud to say that I have made respectable progress in terms of laying a solid foundation for my REI career outside of my long work weeks. I've started a personal budget, began putting 25% of my W2 income into a savings account and read numerous books, including: Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, The Richest Man in Babylon, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, ABCs of Real Estate, Go Pro, Lean Startup and I am currently in progress of finishing both of J Scott's books and The Book on Investing In Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down. There are plenty more lined up in my queue and suggestions on "must reads" are always welcomed! I've also listened to many of the BP Podcasts and intend to finish them all. I've read many, many blog posts here too. All of this has served to help me gain the crucial beginners knowledge I was seeking. Still, I know that I have much to learn. While I am proud of the initial progress I have made, I realize that those who become great were more often than not guided and mentored by those that were great before them. That is where BP comes in, and I am excited that there is an even greater opportunity to achieve a steep learning curve within this great community.

Currently, my partner and I are working on numerous action items. At the forefront of our "to do list" is finding a local CPA and working with them and our lawyer to get a business entity established. We are working through the typical challenges of deciding if we should form an LLC, a Partnership, or something else. I've got plenty of questions for the resident experts here on these issues and many others, but I will leave those for other threads. Our next steps include networking at any local REIA meetings we can find, assembling a team, spending plenty of timing reading/listening on BP, and getting our feet on the group to identify and begin to become experts on our market/sub-market. We intend to purchase our first duplex by the end of September 2015.

As for our goals, we have set detailed goals for ourselves. They are admittedly very lofty goals.  The goal statements themselves are quite detailed but I will spare you the details and just give you the high level summary: Our 5 year goal is to have a combined Real Estate net worth of $1.5M+ through B&H multi-family residential and commercial investments. Our 10 year goals are much, much loftier (including large commercial developments, etc.) With the knowledge and wisdom that is available here at BP and the guidance/coaching of experienced investors that I hope to establish relationships with along the way, I have no worries about falling short of our goals.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to reading of your many successes and interacting with you all for many years to come here on BP. Cheers!

[Dustin Faeth]

Welcome to BP Brandon!  I've been a full time real estate investor in Columbus for about 2 and a half years now so let me know if you ever have any questions (and if I don't have the answer I most likely know someone who does).  Best of luck!