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.

[Jeff Pollack]

Welcome to BP and real estate investing @Bryan Nunes

You "Bay Area Newbies" are just coming out of the woodwork lately..........somebody should quantify this as it would be a great indicator of market inflection points as sure as home affordability or new construction starts.

Be that as it may, life is short my friend.  Working 80+ hours/week and commuting 2 hours/day for the privilege is no way to live.  I'm glad you have discovered there is another way forward with real estate.  

We all gotta start somewhere, so feel free to PM me.  If our scheduled permit we can meet for coffee(beer)/drinks(beer)/lunch(beer) on you, per your suggestion.

Happy Hunting!