New member in the Denver Metro area

[Josh Hanes]

Hi BP community! I'm new to real estate investing and looking to get started with my first deal in the next ninety days.  I apologize in advance for the length of the post below...

A little background on me; I have a little (mostly negative) experience as a landlord after we, my wife and I, moved out of our first home in late 2010 and looked to renting because, shocker, we were underwater. We struggled with two sets of bad tenants for about four years and ultimately made as many mistakes as we could possibly get our hands on. In retrospect, all of the negative experiences we had were largely due to ignorance as land lords and property managers. We finally sold the house in 2014 right before the value skyrocketed here in Thornton, CO. As the saying goes, “timing is everything.” Finally free, I vowed to never own another rental property again after the experience.

Fast forward to early this spring (2016); I had the good fortune of borrow a little known book titled, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad," from my good friend and proceeded to realize all of the things I had been doing wrong and how my financial philosophy was in need of some major retuning. Half a year later, here I am introducing myself to you all after having read more books than my previous fifteen years put together and devouring every resource I can find, including no less than half of the BP podcasts (almost all played at 1.5x speed; thanks for that epic Quick Tip @Joshua Dorkin and @Brandon Turner). I am now solidly convinced that I do want to be a landlord again, albeit a vastly more educated and intelligent landlord this time!

I’m ultimately interested in focusing on buy and hold for the long run with single family up to 4-plexes to get a start and build experience. I would like to transition to commercial 5+ unit properties down the road. I am also interested in flips as a means of generating some cash and experience along the way. I currently have a full time W2 job as a civil/structural engineer doing work that I actually really enjoy. I’m looking to real estate to secure my retirement and augment my income with hopes that I can build a business to pass on to my children someday.

I’m very interested in growing my network around the Denver and Front Range area and would love start getting involved in some of the meet-ups in the area. The information available in the Bigger Pockets community is clearly invaluable and I am grateful that all of you are out there and willing to share your knowledge and experience. As a newbie looking to get back into the game, I gain confidence and find inspiration in every blog post, forum post, podcast, and book I encounter on this site.