New member out of Buford, GA/Atlanta metro area

[Joel Ubiera]

Hey everyone! My name is Joel Ubiera. I am a pretty new real estate investor out of Buford, Georgia. When I was in the Navy, I will never forget how a supervisor told me back in 2010 to buy a house. It struck me as really odd that he would make that suggestion, but a couple weeks later he made the same suggestion again. A few months later in the summer of 2010 I bought my first property. It was a foreclosure in great condition and I ended up renting it out for years until I got out of the Navy. The tenant ended missing several payments and trashed the house. I ended up losing about $5000 that I'm still fighting to recover from it through the court. Once I sold the house, I did end up making a pretty good profit of $30,000. This was about a year and a half ago. From the time I bought the house, held it, and sold it, I did not quite realize what a great opportunity I truly had in my hands. I've learned a lot from that experience. Now, another great opportunity has presented itself. I purchased a property for $80,000, owe $64,000, and it's appraised at $140,000. I believe that now that I've matured a lot more, I realize what I have in my hands. It's like I've had a huge awakening in my life. I've been learning a heck of a lot about real estate through books and biggerpockets.com. So it is with great pleasure that I introduce myself to the forums and say that it's an honor to be here. This website has been a huge blessing in my life. I've learned so much! I look forward to continue to learn from you guys and hopefully find a good group of people to network with.