Starting Fresh in Poughkeepsie, New York

[Stuart Astruc]

Hello BiggerPockets members!

My name is Stuart Astruc and I have just moved back to my home town of Poughkeepsie at 26 years old. I moved up to Albany, NY back in 2008 to go to college, and was living up there until a week ago. I studied Forensic Psychology in college while working a variety of food service jobs. The restaurant industry lured me in for quite some time, but I eventually worked in a corporate office for about a year and a half before leaving to pursue financial freedom, which led me to more restaurant work, and I ended up going full circle! But, I am tired of running around in circles, chasing the next dollar, and watching my bank account fluctuate from red to green and back again. The time for me to make major life changes is now, and I am actively working on myself to ensure that I stop taking one step forward with two steps back!

So far, this has been an exciting, terrifying, but overall extremely rewarding experience. I have been changing my life day by day, and I am reinvigorated after my move to really buckle down and pursue a career in real estate. Over the last year I have dabbled in learning about real estate, listening and reading to resources by Jack Miller and Jackie Lange over at cashflowdepot.com. However, I was woefully unprepared for the time and work that this endeavor would take. 

Looking forward for what I have on my agenda so far -- I am currently reading Building Wealth One House at a Time by John Schaub and I will be attending a REIA club meeting this Wednesday evening. I have also purchased several other books, such as The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down by Brandon Turner (name sounds familiar...), The Book on Flipping Houses and The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott (since I plan to work with flippers, but not flip houses myself), and The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing by Martin Stone. I have a fantastic opportunity as all of my expenses for at least the next 3 months have been paid for, so I would absolutely appreciate any advice for how to maximize this time for jump-start my career. 

I am far from a handyman, so I am very much interested in learning about wholesaling (I really need to focus on receiving some cash on hand first), and transitioning in to buying and holding while renting the properties. I do not want to limit myself too much, but at the same time, there is so much information out there to digest, I feel my head start spinning when I think of all of the possibilities of what I could do! I could see myself getting caught in a knowledge trap, where I want to keep learning without taking any action, so I am also hoping for some advice on transitioning from paper to practice!

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance! I have committed myself to reading, listening, and most of all, becoming an active participant within a community to learn as much as I can about becoming a Real Estate Investor. I sincerely look forward to engaging within this community and I hope that I will be able to give back in some way down the road.