New Member from San Francisco, originally from Rochester NY

[Adam Witkop]

Hi All,

My name is Adam Witkop, and I'm brand new to real estate investing.  I'm originally from Rochester NY, but currently live in San Francsico.  I rent right now, but am thinking about buying in the Bay Area, or possibly investing in a few single family homes in the Rochester NY area - maybe student housing?  I work at Shell Oil as an engineer, and attend the part time business school program at UC Berkeley (Haas).  I don't mind my job, but eventually, I'd like to be free of the corporate life and do my own thing - I've heard real estate is a good place to start!

I've picked up a few books (The millionaire real estate investor, building wealth one house at a time, and Hold: how to find, buy and rent houses), but am only halfway through the millionaire real estate investor - I started last week, cut me some slack!

I have some savings, but business school and a new baby are taking a sizable chunk of my income.  I'm open to any suggestions on how and where to start investing, preferably without sizable front capital requirements.  As far as I can tell, I'm interested in buy and hold single family homes in fairly decent condition (I'm not particularly handy)

Thanks - hope to hear from you!!

Adam