Forum lurker from Massachusetts emerging from the shadows

[Bobby Thompson]

Hey BP,

     Long time lurker, first time poster. Love the work you do here and thought it was a good time  to start engaging the community. 

    First I'd like to extend my gratitude to the founders and contributors of Bigger Pockets. You guys and gals do an amazing job and this site has been an incredible resource for me. I hope I can help out more than just subscribing in the future.   

    My name is Bobby Thompson. I'm a senior manager at a healthcare IT services company just outside of Boston, Ma (Computer Science, Math, Informatics, Nerd). I've just become serious about real estate investing but I've been poking around the industry for a long time.

      I gained interest while working on an academic big data project with the goal of merging multiple commercial and public data sets and applying some programming witchery to target prime locations for business owners to set up shop or expand to new areas. We found that with a little tweaking, our algorithm could also find emerging or declining areas of residential real estate. You'd be amazed by the effects of seemingly innocuous businesses on home prices and desirability. 

     I recently relocated to the South Shore of Massachusetts for the summer. During my 26 mile commute (mostly backroads because our transit system is atrocious), I pass a lot of real estate and it's put me in analysis frenzy. I'm riding that momentum now and I'm hoping to meet fellow investors on BP and in my area to keep the wave rolling. 

     My ultimate goal is to build a rental portfolio that is well managed (by someone else, eventually) and brings in a cash flow of $5000 a month, in about 10 years. Aim small, miss small right? I'm also interested in getting involved in a rehab or two each year to raise capital for more buy and holds. That being said, I'm smart enough to know that I have a lot to learn from this community and other seasoned real estate veterans. I'm very much a newb in the real estate world but I bring a lot strengths as a potential partner and/or colleague. I'm professional, approachable, trustworthy, and I'm in a very solid financial state. 

     I look forward to making your acquaintance in the forums and buying lots of coffee, beers and steak dinners for the locals. Please send me a line on BP or gmail if you'd like to meet or chat. I'm up for anything.

Thanks!

Bobby Thompson 

[Bobby Thompson]

@Michael Badin

@Doug N. @Joe Fairless

Thanks for the warm welcome. I am very much a data nerd. Most of my work is in C# and Sql with a couple of plugins to display the information on a map. Honestly, I'm more interested in the process of data modeling than the visualization but I need to learn more about the GIS tools out there. I'm currently working on a process to merge some home value and rent information with the state's census report and the local school districts rating system. Hoping I can identify some trends, specifically areas with low but increasing population/average income coupled with improving education and decreasing joblessness. Ill keep you posted.