Hello, another newbie from Richmond Virginia

[Brandon Kanakis]

My name is Brandon Kanakis-Pennell. I am from Richmond Virginia as you can see from the post subject. My experience in real estate has been literally investing in REITs, crowd funding loans, and purchasing my primary residence and renovating pretty much every room of the house over the years with my wife.

I am a new father. My daughter is 7 weeks old now. As a career I am a professional penetration tester. I currently assess web applications for security vulnerabilities. I'm hoping to shortly move over to a position where I play a bad actor and attack organizations entire networks.

My goal with real estate is to supplement or replace my income. I have a worry that 10-15 years from now I will burn out or grow jaded with my professional industry as many of my older colleagues have become. 

I enjoy working on homes, it allows me to use another part of my brain in addition to it being physical work that I can see and created with my own hands. I like the idea that as my portfolio grows, I can literally put in as much work as I want up front and reap the reward of working less as I go on or choosing what projects to engage in. There is something amazing about being free to work when you choose.

I ran across BiggerPockets last year while searching for investing podcasts. I've been a heavy individual stock as well as mutual fund/etf investor in the stock market. I'm currently maxing my 401k contributions and believe by the end of the year I can max my IRA contributions as well. Since I have a majority of my wealth in the stock market, I am seeking alternative investment vehicles which offer diversification. Real estate seems like a great one that allows me to get physical when I need to, offers great tax advantages for the individual taxable income side of investing, and it doesn't directly correlate to the stock market. Last but not least I love the fact that you can actually measure and predict returns in ways that are far easier than the stock market.

I hope to use BP to network with others, potentially partner with seasoned investors and learn the many facets of the real estate business. I am pretty sure that I want to start out with Single Family Homes. I am familiar with these, as a home owner myself. I know how to do a vast amount of remodeling save for major electrical work and structural repair or modification. I am very interested in being a buy and hold investor, however I am not opposed to flipping occasional homes if the market is right and the capital/time seem to fit. My biggest fear in the real estate world is getting hit with some legal issue either from the standpoint of running a business, some deal going wrong, or a tenant related problem probably resulting in eviction.

In terms of where I stand, I have almost completed reading Brandon Turners book on Rental Property Investing. I'm starting to get comfortable with analyzing deals. I have just under 20k in cash reserves to purchase a SFH using a 20% down conventional rental mortgage. So I am getting close to being able to buy at least a 100k property (though I would shoot 70/80% value of listing price) and am certainly looking for some fixer uppers (Love the idea of a project house). If I could get some in the Upper Reservoir District that would be amazing. I do not currently have interest in investing out of state. I'd rather throw money at an E-REIT or something that is a bigger unit project.

I do not know what else to say at this time, but I can say this is the first time I've actually engaged in the forums. I've been much just been a silent reader and a non-contributing member. I think that as I get closer to being ready to engage in the world of Real Estate, I will have to come out of my shell a bit.