New member from Bay Area, CA

[Scott Ozawa]

Hi, guys,

I just joined.  I live in the Bay Area and am new to Investing.  I fell into Investing following the 2008 crash.  

In the early 2000's, I bought into a townhouse in Santa Cruz. I lived there for a few years and eventually got married. She disliked Santa Cruz and pressured me to move to SF, so I bought into a TIC up there. We didn't work out and divorced shortly after moving up. Obviously, it was a bad choice for a person to marry, but she let me keep the house free and clear. Later, in 2009, the startup I worked for went under Forcing me to find work outside the Bay Area.

In hindsight, that unfortunate event lead me into Investing because I wasn't in a good position to sell and I knew eventually the market would turn which would allow me to be able to make a decent amount from selling the property.  I recently was able to sell my share after an arduous process of getting fractional financing andand doing a 1031 exchange into some new properties out near Sacramento.

I now have the bug.  I see a lot of possibilities and potential and very excited to see what I can do next.

I started out, apparently, like many, with the whole Rich Dad series of books.  Some of which were helpful, others not so much.  They did serve to get me excited, so I've been merrily researching away.  I came across this site and am reading through the eBook and whatever I can get my hands on.  There's a lot I don't know but really excited to learn.

At any rate, that's me.  I'll probably do more lurking initially, then get started doing stuff.  Hope to contribute when I can.

Cheers, 

Scott