Newbie from Oakland, CA

[Adrianne Hanusek]

Hi everyone. I live in the East Bay - Oakland, CA. I just happened upon BP a few days ago when starting to research real estate investing. I did some research years ago, but didn't follow through with it. However, my husband and I would like to get serious about it. 

At this stage we are just doing a lot of learning, but would love to start meeting local investors in the area. If anyone can suggest local real estate investor meetups that are good for beginners that would be great. Names of potential local mentors would be great too. 

We also want to start researching professionals to put a team together so if anyone can suggest investor-friendly realtors and mortgage brokers to contact as well as anyone else you recommend (such as financial advisers/accountants, lawyers, etc.) that would be greatly appreciated. I look forward to reading as many posts as I can and listening to the podcasts so we can start to formulate what our goals are. 

We've owned our primary home for 4 years (purchased on 2012) and at the moment we're not sure if we want to invest further locally or out of state. 

Look forward to learning much from you all.

Thanks!