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New member from Chicago suburbs
Hello all! I am here from Chicago area suburbs & I'm so excited to get started in Real Estate. I am new to the game from an investor standpoint but worked in commercial real estate all through high school and college. I am mostly looking for buy & hold properties that can provide cash flow through renting. I would, however, love to incorporate flips one day as I have a passion and background in design and diy. I first got interested in real estate through Rich Dad Poor Dad and started researching and reading all I could! Bigger Pockets posts podcasts on you tube so I listened to as many as I could and now here I am! Excited to get my first deal and create the passive income I've always wanted. Thanks for reading, looking forward to all the connections I will make here!
Welcome Melissa and best of luck in your RE endeavors!
BP is full of useful resources such as forums and blogs. Welcome to the Bigger Pockets community-be sure to check out all the awesome BP blogs under “Learn.”
@Melissa Wedell Welcome to BP! It's a great place to network and learn. When you have questions, there are always plenty of local people here that can help you out.
Welcome to the BP community @Melissa Wedell!!
I am confident that you will find this is an awesome place to learn about all things real estate, make a few friends along the way and in the process achieve your real estate goals.
While you’re at it, don't forget to set up keyword alerts for topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts
Best of luck in your real estate ventures, see you around the site!
Welcome to BP!
To get the most value out of BP, here are the steps:
1. Learn - listen the podcasts. Start with mine :-)
http://Biggerpockets.com/show65
- you can also scour and read through the blogs here on BP
2. Network through providing VALUE to people
- seek out people here on BP - specially people who have done what you want to do, have intelligent answers to people's questions on the forums and have years of experience investing in real estate. A good indication that someone has experience and give intelligent answers to people's questions is the ratio of votes to posts. If someone has 1,000 posts and only 1 vote, that person might not be providing a lot of value to the BP community - but someone with 1,000 posts with 800 votes is someone who likely knows what they're saying.
- provide value to them by answering their questions or simply finding the answers to questions being posted on the forums
- meet people offline - attend networking or BP Meetups. @Brie Schmidt puts a good group that meets in Chicago city. @Shelly F. started a group for Northwest Suburbs.
3. Do deals and write about them - share what you're learning, earning, even your mistakes here on BP
- once you vet out the BP member, and you vet let's say a deal they bring to you, JUMP and do the deal. You can read BP forums, blogs and listen to all the podcasts, but until you do the deals, you really don't KNOW about them.
Talking about deals, I have a property in Bolingbrook. Market value is $220K - I have sold it rent to own for $240K. Me and my partner on it -whom I met through Biggerpockets - will make over $80K profit on it. That deal in Bolingbrook will probably never happened without Biggerpockets. It works but you got to do all of the above.
Lisa,
Welcome and you are in the perfect place to get started. Network, Network, Network! Above all take the leap if not today tomorrow, next month but do leap. All the best!
Welcome @Melissa Wedell! You've arrived at the right place to learn more about RE Investing. Great, friendly investors that are willing and happy to share!
Good luck with your investors! This is an exciting time to get started!
Welcome! Go check out a few local REI clubs. You'll find a lot of buy and hold investors in your area.
Welcome Melissa. I'm new to Bigger Pockets and I most say: this site feels warming, comfortable, informative, easy to follow as time permits. I find myself spending a lot of my spare time with BP. I'm grasping concepts with little effort. The alerts help to hasten my search for particular topics. I believe we will be successful in our endeavors. Take care and take God.
Wow thank you for all the warm welcomes and amazing advice already! I'm excited to start this new life journey!!! :-)
Welcome to Bigger Pockets. Consider sending messages to other members for specific guidance.