Newbie in NYC->out of state investing

[Najee McGreen]

Hi everyone! I've been a long time lurker -- reading the blog posts, browsing the forums anonymously, and listening to podcasts, but I thought I'd finally get involved with the community / forums for once.

As my title says, I'm based in NYC and besides a good chunk (in my opinion) of book knowledge, I'm still quite a bit of a novice. I'd like to lock my first investment property in in the next few months and progress from there. I'm primarily interested in purchases as investments, maximizing ROI, and looking to take a more active role (compared to buy and holding stocks/funds) in attaining FI.

I think the regional pitfalls/gotchas, and unseen costs are the biggest deterrents for newbies and over-thinkers like myself.  My engineering and gaming background has turned me into a serial min-maxer, but I'd love to be able to run some basic and not so basic scenarios by people who've already been through a couple+ purchases.

Anyway, just wanted to say I'm glad to be apart of the community, and looking forward to digging in and learning even more.  Thanks BP!