New Member - New Braunfels - San Antonio - Rookie

[Stephen Oakes]

Howdy! I am an Aggie so we are more than obligated to lead with that greeting! If that hasn't told you enough about me already; I am a graduate of Texas A&M about 7 years ago and have been working in the Commerical Construction industry as a Project Manager in Dallas/Houston/San Antonio. I married my college sweetheart who is from New Braunfels and was blessed to settle down here with her. I am involved in construction sales & operations on a daily basis and have a high level of understanding on how the business operates, specifically the mechanical aspect (my specialty). However after all of the dollars and cents I look at on a daily basis this doesn't answer any of my questions or provide enough confidence in myself to immediately start investing. After numerous PodCasts I have decided that why not? I network for the construction business all the time, it only makes sense for real estate to operate the same. I realize there are endless pitfalls and lessons learned and I want to grasp as much of these as possible using Bigger Pockets. My goals: ideally I would like to own and rent 5-10 SFR's in the next 4-5 years depending upon loans, rates, cash flow etc. Secondly I would prefer these properties to be in the New Braunfels and/or San Marcos markets but after some light research it looks like my first go of it might need to be San Antonio. Any advice for these markets? Places to stay away from? Thoughts on getting a partner and creating an LLC ? Manage yourself or pay a manager? I have the resources to do rehab easily due to my industry contacts but my shortcomings are: loans, property management, leases, finding unlisted properties etc. Thanks!