Multi Family owner from Worcester MA

[Kevin Hayes]

Hey everyone,  my name is Kevin Hayes and I'm new to BiggerPockets.  Stumbled across the Podcast this morning and decided to check out the website after listening to it for the last 6 hours.   Ironically,  I went to check out the Worcester MA forum and immediately came across a forum member here who rehabbed the apartment that my friend from Boston is living in.  It's pretty cool to hop onto a discussion board and basically have the information on there verified right off the bat.

A little about myself,  I work in IT and always had a dream of owning a decent house on a huge chunk of land where I could ATV and relax.  As I grew up a little I realized that wasn't really attainable in MA unless I wanted to live out west where there aren't any jobs.  So, I ended up buying my first home right off a main highway,  it was a single family in between two 4 family homes with about 1/10th of an acre of land.  At first I thought it was going to be miserable,  but then I found a couple of roommates.  All of the sudden I was living there for free after they paid rent,  and I could use my money to go ATV up north and down south.

Relationship statuses changed,  roommates moved out and I started to see that Real Estate Investing might be something I should pursue.  So, I sold my small house with no land and immediately came across a 2 family on a lake in Worcester.  Jumped on it (Literally,  they hadn't even put a for sale sign in the yard yet) and for the last year and a half or so have been rehabbing it.  Except I have zero construction background.  Through friends and family I've learned a little carpentry,  basic plumbing and have gone down to part time in IT and now work part time doing Electrical and am on my way to getting a license (in 3 years, but it's coming).  Might have bitten off more than I could chew for this first investment property,  but I know I won't lose any money on it.  Just have to put in a lot of sweat.

I'm on here to meet people and learn as much as I can so that my future investments will have more reward for the amount of sweat equity I put into them and to decide which direction I should move forward in.  Just living in Worcester and hearing horror stories from friends I've made that have 3 and 4 families in the area,  I'm not so sure I want to do multi families and the risk of tenant damage and evictions (MA is not landlord friendly when it comes to that),  or if I want to do single family homes that tend to rent to more stable family renters and not college kids.  Or even looking for out of state vacation properties that rent out week to week.   

If anyone is in the area,  say hi!