Newbie from San Jose, Bay Area, California! Very excited to be here

[Bryan Nunes]

Hi ALL!!

My name is Bryan Nunes, I currently reside in Dublin, CA and work in San Jose, CA in the bay area.  Firstly, i wanted to give a shout out to Josh Dorkin and Brandon Taylor, i wouldn't be here if i did not stumble upon your podcast through my initial google searching about real estate investing, since then i have listened to the first 25 podcast episodes, and am listening to a new one everyday (in my 1 hour commute), and you both have inspired me and lit a fire to go after my dreams of being a real estate investor.  That brought me here, a little about myself:  I bought my first property in 2004 at the age of 24 in The Ranch on Silver Creek in San Jose CA.  new home, paid 800k, got sold on an "option-arm" through washington mutual, watched the house appreciate to 1.2mil in 2006 thinking wow this is awesome!  long story short, being 24 and dumb i took out a heloc, and bought toys i shouldn't have, in 2008 market crashed and house was upside down 300k.  Learned a very valuable lesson i will never soon repeat.    I've since purchased another home in Dublin, CA also new construction in may 2013.  The right way this time, got a 1st phase cancelation, and now after listening to bigger pockets i'm considering renting/selling the property (has over 200k equity) and possibly purchasing a multi-family and living in one of the units like a lot of people i've listened to have done. 

My goal is to one day retire early replacing my w-2 income of 25k per month with real estate, since i have not the best quality of life even though the money is great (80hr+ work weeks).  I'm looking outside Bay Area as far as sacramento area down to gilroy for buy and hold properties, even considering out of state the more i listen to BP podcasts, although i have zero experience at the moment.  I look forward to networking here and meeting fellow investors and to get started working on deals ASAP!!  Any mentors around the Bay Area would like to get together, coffee/drinks/lunch is on me!    You will be definately seeing more of me.