Newbie in Tampa Bay Florida

[Alton Shady]

Good afternoon everyone! My name is Alton Shady and I am a new investor in the Tampa Bay area. I live in Pasco county, and am looking to build my business in the greater Tampa Bay Area.

I have been listening to the BiggerPockets podcast for the last couple months and have already worked my way through over 60 episodes. Josh and Brandon really have a great way of interviewing guests to hear their stories and get a lot of valuable information for us newbies. I have been to a bunch of real estate conferences(you know, the ones with some free info, a lot of hype, and $5,000-$50,000 programs to purchase) and have wanted to get into real estate for years. The timing has never been right, what with being a teenager, going to college, not having money.....all the usual excuses. Finally, my business partner and I decided we could not keep working regular day jobs with little time flexibility, and we started seriously looking into building our business.

After a couple months of conversations, we were able to get an investor to put up some money with a simple interest repayment so we could buy our first investment. My business partner and I have purchased our first full rehab and are now almost finished with the restoration. Within the next two weeks or so we should have the property on the market and we are actively working on getting a contract for another property.

All that to say, I'm actively involved in real estate, but am definitely still a newbie and am learning a ton from the podcast and forums here. I am incredibly grateful for the community here on BiggerPockets and I look forward to getting to know many of you in the next few months and years. Thank you to everyone who regularly interacts with the forums and answers a lot of questions from us newbies!

Thank you!

Alton