Greetings from the Pittsburgh, PA area

[Mike Karbowsky]

My name is Mike Karbowsky. I live in the North Huntingdon area about 20 miles east of the city. My wife and I purchased and rehabbed a property in McKeesport about 12 years ago. We had our ups and downs with tenants but I must say there have been more positives than negatives and I learned a lot by baptism by fire. At one point we belonged to the Pittsburgh Chapter of ACRE and enjoyed attending the meetings, seminars and networking with other investors. 

Unfortunately my wife had severe rheumatoid arthritis, developed some major complications and passed away this past September. Her illness basically stopped our goals of flipping or buying to rent.
The property in McKeesport is in need of a rather large capital improvement which I would like to start working on this spring.

I am close to retirement and really don’t have any hobbies to pursue so I thought I would get back into real estate investment not only to make a profit but for something to do. My wife’s untimely and sudden passing has left a lot of uncertainty about what my future holds going into retirement so I’m thinking keeping busy with properties may help pass the time. I have 2 teenaged grandsons that I would like to teach how to work with their hands and use this opportunity to help teach them life lessons. Nothing comes easy and don’t be afraid of working hard to get what you want in life.

I’m an electrician by trade and a 40 year member of IBEW Local 5 in Pittsburgh. I can perform a lot of work on my own aside from electrical work but smart enough to know that paying someone to do something you can’t do is the right approach.

I’m sort of semi-retired by design today. I work in the nuclear power industry as an instrument technician and work outages at nuke plants across the country. There are 2 outage seasons – one in the spring and one in the fall. I try to physically work about 7 -8 months a year and take the balance of the year off – because I can!

My interest here is to gain some knowledge of what is going on in today’s real estate investment world. I have been away from this since 2007-08. I’m looking for a local meetup group in the Westmoreland and eastern Allegheny county areas. I’m sure as my schedule permits I will venture back to the ACRE chapter as well. I’m also looking to secure a few more homes to hold as rentals, maybe even a multifamily deal too or perhaps a property to work on as a flip this summer.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. I just returned from a job assignment in upstate NY and will leaving soon for southern Maryland for about a month. So I thought while I’m away from home I can work my way through some topics that interest me here in Biggerpockets and perhaps do some due diligence on setting up a plan to move forward.  As you all can see - I have no problem "Talking" LOL  Sorry for the novel but there is only one introductory First Post.

Best regards,
Mike Karbowsky