New member from North Dakota/Virginia!

[John Thomasson]

Hi there! First thing you might notice and wonder how it makes any sense is the subject of my intro, North Dakota and Virginia? How in the world do those two states have any correlation with each other at all? Well, I was born and raised in Virginia, I love and miss it dearly! A year ago this past thanksgiving I moved to ND for work after receiving an offer for a "high" paying job of 60k/year (high for me at the time) to save money to begin investing in real estate. During my time here I married my girlfriend of five years, made and lost money, and the worst part of all...lost focus on why I moved here at all. A little background about what influenced the move, after graduating high school I went to community college for engineering, criminal justice, and business. Each subject only lasted a semester and the reason for that was I was starting businesses in the background all the time I was just never following through but something started becoming more and more apparent and that was my passion of (the idea of) real estate investing. Now about this time a friend of mine asked me to take a trip to ND with him on a business trip, a week later he hired me for the job. During the first few months of being here I focused the majority of my time on educating myself and trying to find which area of real estate I wanted to focus on. However as the weather started to warm up last spring and we began making friends up here I truly learned the truth in the saying that you are the average of your five closest friends, I began to lose focus and spending money and that seems to be what everyone up here does, works in the oilfield and blows their paycheck by the end of the weekend. I bought a new truck, got my wife a car, and the rest...I cant even recall where it was all spent and have nothing to show for it! (Stick with me the end is near!) This past October I married the woman of my dreams, we went back to Virginia for the wedding and paid for everything ourselves. While we were there something hit me, I realized that I was not happy with my salary, no matter how large and that I truly missed my true home and the world of entrepreneurship and that I would be happy with much less if I could be my own boss. We came back home and I refocused. I have dedicated myself to getting out of all debts and educating myself as well as start investing in my market in Virginia in order to have something to move too. 

Now I apologize for my long winded babbling of my "life story" but it does feel nice to admit that I lost focus on what is truly important and I am ready to make the change! I am looking forward from the support of this forum and passing it forward to others as well! I need to surround myself with like minded people as well as those that are much smarter and more successful than myself!