New Real Estate Investor in Atlanta, Georgia, and Tokyo, Japan.

[Nick Brubaker]

Dear BiggerPockets community!

I want to introduce myself to all of you.

I have been on the sidelines of BiggerPockets for long enough and am ready to get involved. Joshua Dorkin and Brandon Turner’s sweet voices have been the backdrop of my daily routines for over a year now - I have listened to all of the podcasts (the only podcast I listen to now). I have been very impressed by BP as a resource as well as the members themselves who contribute to such a supportive environment. I want to go ahead and join all of you and start becoming more active here in the forums.

A bit about me: I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, but am currently living in Tokyo, Japan. My Japanese fiancé and I have our own small English school here. We have both managed to save up a substantial amount of money and are ready to buy our own home as well as invest in real estate generally. We have our sights all over the place at the moment. We intend to move back to the US around the end of this year (2015) with a plan to buy our own house and potentially dive into REI full time. We will be open to and very interested in knowing what places in the country have the best investment potential for the foreseeable future. This will be a big factor in where we decide to settle. It's possible too that we may be convinced to focus our investment efforts here in the Tokyo market, but it seems much more complicated. The most specific plan we have so far is to try out Brandon's house-hacking idea with our first home being a duplex, triplex, or quadplex.

In the coming months I will be educating myself through books and this website. I will be interested in learning more about multifamily properties, various financing options, flipping, wholesaling, landlording, foreclosures, short sales, property management, marketing, and so on. I’m looking forward to giving back as well once I acquire enough knowledge of use to others.

BiggerPockets is an uplifting website because it makes the possibility of real estate investment welcoming and attainable to anyone. I hope like many others on this site I will be able to find financial freedom and a higher quality of life through this work and lifestyle.

Thank you all in advance. I’m looking forward to meeting you online and in person!

[Azeez K.]

@Nick Brubaker Kon'nichiwa!

Good plan in taking the step in the right direction. Couple books that may be helpful to get you started 

Multi-family: Multi-family Millions by David Lindahl

Financing Options - BP Forums

Flipping: JScott's book on Flipping

Landlording - Landlording on Auto-Pilot by Mike Butler

General Real Estate - ABC's of Real Estate Investing Ken McElroy and Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Garry Keller 

Network with other members in the area you are wanting to invest and get insider market insights and real estate trends. It's very beneficial to have a strong network and BP is fantastic in this aspect. 

Here are some additional new Member Tips

Tip # 1: How to Use @Mentions on BiggerPockets

Tip # 2: Setting up Keyword Alerts

Tip # 3: 25 Tips for Real Estate Success

Tip # 4: Check out the Start Here page

Tip # 5: Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide

Tip # 6: Listen to BiggerPockets PodCast Don't know which one to listen first..listen to BiggerPockets Podcast 108: Building a 350 million Real Estate empire using the 10X rule with Grant Cardone

Tip #7: Votes

Couple other things you may be interested for the Atlanta Market

• Video Market Updates - Atlanta
• Home Values - Find out home values in Atlanta

We have a very strong BP community in Atlanta. If your travel plans ever bring you here be sure to hit us up. Good Luck!