Newbie Investor in Austin - Seeking Mentors and Partners

[Mason Peatross]

My wife and I have been floating around the edges of real estate investing for the past couple of years. We started by joining a real estate mentorship group in early 2013 and starting to absorb as much information as we could. The mentorship group had limited resources in Austin (they're really based in Houston/Dallas/San Antonio) so when we got involved with our first property, they could only recommend one investor-friendly general contractor, who was also an investor themselves. We bought a duplex in south Austin with the intent of living there and renting out the other half through the 203K loan program.  After a two-three month rehab (which should have been done in one month) we realized we had a terrible GC. After living in the duplex for just a couple of months, the company I was working for got bought out and I got a lucrative job offer in Houston, so we moved and rented out both halves of the duplex. After owning it for a year and getting sick of being long distance landlords, we decided to sell and ended up clearing $15K on top of the rehab and associated realtor fees. So we accidentally successfully did a flip! 

We're back in Austin after spending a miserable year in Houston, and I am looking into going full time as a real estate investor/flipper. Currently we're cash/asset poor, have great credit (800+ for both my wife and I) and she's working (50K yearly) and I'm job hunting but not excited about the possibilities I've had so far. I'd love to find a way to leverage my enthusiasm, willingness to learn, and my slight bit of experience into a partnership/mentorship/apprenticeship with someone locally - as I'd much rather be making money doing something I enjoy than spend another day in an office. 

I also realized that there's a lot of house flipping work that I actually enjoy doing - I enjoy putting together IKEA cabinets, painting, cleaning, doing landscaping - but I enjoy them when I'll see some fruits for those labors! My father was in construction for years, so I've inherited nearly every possible renovation tool you could ever want - including a roof moisture meter (he was an inspector for a minute)!

Any suggestions, ideas, or encouraging words are more than welcome. I'm attending several meetups over the next couple of weeks to start networking in Austin. I'm also doing as much reading as possible. 

[Benjamin Hirsch]

Hi Mason,

First of all I wish you much success in your ventures. Secondly, in my humble opinion, you can get the most knowledge networking and interacting with seasoned investors. Though studying and learning are great, the best and most usable knowledge comes from pounding the street, talking to others, listening to their successes and failures, and not being afraid to DO it!

Best of luck!

Ben