New BP member in Raleigh, NC

[Neal Isaacs]

Greetings BP Community,

I'm excited to be a new member of the BP Community.  In the couple weeks  been here, I've found tremendous value and I've been so impressed with how people make every effort to help each other and share their experiences.  Big shout out to @Brandon Turner and @Joshua Dorkin for creating such a resource.

My Story:

I'm marketing specialist working a full time sales role and focusing on buy and hold rentals in my free time.  I listen to a lot of podcasts like the "Bigger Pockets podcast (obviously)" "Investing in Real Estate with Clayton Morris,"  "Cardone Zone with Grant Cardone," and the "Passive Real Estate Investing" podcast from Norada, and I'm very hungry to learn as much as I can. I've also joined the local REIA in the Triangle area.

While I'm somewhat new to REI, I do have two rentals locally.

It started when my wife moved in and it was time to upgrade from the bachelor pad.  I always wanted to rent my home and set up new income streams, so we did it, and after one year of pain things got better.  We've used property management from the beginning, and it seems to be the right choice for my wife and I.  

I remember a time when I was one the phone with my property manager and she said, "the police are at the house again, but it's not for the drug dealing, it's for domestic abuse; but no report was filed so we can't evict them yet..." and I knew having a property manager was the right choice for us.

Since that time we got a great tenant in the bachelor's pad, and I picked up a foreclosure in my neighborhood that went swimmingly well.  I bought it at the courthouse and the acquisition/go-to-market phases were almost pain free.  

My Objectives:

Now that I've learned more I think I've been extremely lucky so far, and that I only know enough to do some damage.  I want to hit 10 properties in the next 5 years and I'll need to learn a lot to accomplish this.  So here are my goals on BP:

1. Learn as much as possible as quickly as possible.  
2. Network and eventually find a mentor
3. Share what I learn with others

My Ask:

I'd like to encourage anyone who's read this far (thanks btw) to complete one of these sentences: "The most useful thing I did when I started investing in real estate was..."  or "The one thing I wish someone had told me this when I started was..."

I'd also like to connect with anyone who's on the same path I'm on, or has already made the mistakes I'm about to make.

I also take unsolicited advice!

Thanks in advance.