New investor from Connecticut in Philly

[Andrew Saunders]

Hi BP,

I’ve been a member of the site for over a year now, reading along and listening to the podcasts and now I figured it was time to make my first post. I’m originally from and have a property in the New Haven, CT area, but have been living in Philadelphia, PA for the past two years.

I guess I could say my interest in real estate was sparked around the age of 14 when my family inherited a total rehab property from my great aunt and uncle. Working with my uncle every day for an entire summer, we are able to successfully gut the house and get it into a condition that allowed it to sell at a fair price. I learned a lot about rehabbing properties that year and the value that could be added with some hard work.

Fast-forward some years, when a couple buddies from college and I decided to rent a house in lieu of living on campus. Everything was great, except for the fact I hated paying rent knowing it did not benefit my future at all. My thoughts were always, it would be so much nicer to just buy a house and have my friends pay me. Determined to make this reality I began educating myself into all of the aspects of homeownership. I started looking at property after property (from the MLS) all while finishing my undergraduate engineering degree and working full time. Eventually, I found a house and put an offer and it was accepted. While going through the typical loan process, my company asked me if I was interested in working on a new project down in Philly. After accepting the offer, I basically became an accidental landlord, which eventually lead me to this site and this whole new world of real estate investing. Knowing what I know now from this site about calculating for rental properties, it wasn't the greatest investment, but the house slightly cash flows and I have great tenants in a great neighborhood in Milford, CT. In addition to that, I learned a ton from the experience so no regrets.

As of recently, I've been paying more and more attention to the market right here in Philadelphia and have realized what a great place this is to invest and build a solid network of people. I've been attending a few REI Groups and have met some great people. My immediate goal is to acquire a second property in the next couple months to either rehab or if livable, complete a live-in flip, with the end goal in mind to eventually rent out and hold onto. Ultimately, I'd like to build a nice portfolio of rental properties.

I’ll leave off with saying thank you to everyone for the great information available on this site every day. I look forward to meeting, talking and learning with all of you.