New REI looking to meet other REIs

[Alexander Ritola]

Greetings!

I was born, raised, and currently residing in Orange County, California and for the last 6 years I've been somewhat obsessively involving myself in the world of business. Familiarizing myself with whatever skills seem interesting and valuable in that they could help me achieve my goals of having many sources of passive income. I've tried to start several businesses myself with varying success learning lots along the way. Skills I've learned and employed for myself and other businesses have been namely, computer programming (generally focused on web technologies) and internet marketing (email/direct, SEO, and PPC, among others). Generally speaking I enjoy thinking about and implementing systems that can automatically provide value and turn profit over time. This what ultimately ignites my interest in real estate investing.

I've been learning about real estate, focusing primarily on rental property investing for a little over a year no. Just reading books, blogs, forums, listening to the BP podcast, and attending the occasional local real estate meetup in my free time. I'm definitely a novice, but I understand a good portion of the vocabulary. I think now I just need to start applying the things I've learned.

A primary motivator for me switching from a lurker to a poster, is that my parents are moving to Indiana in about a month and they've asked me to help them find some places to invest the money they got out of selling their home in SoCal. They'd like to put their money somewhere relatively close (being 2~3 hour drive max) to their new home in Indiana. Originally we were thinking about investing in Chicago but based on my research, Cook County is not very landlord friendly and it might be best to avoid. We're also considering the south Chicago suburbs and Indiana area. There seem to be some strong advocates for the Indianapolis market here on BP, so that is another area we'd like to consider.

Ideally, I'd like to set up some meetings with some real estate agents/real estate investors next month in some of these areas who'd be willing to sit down with me to talk about real estate. I want to start building some relationships with people that are actively involved in the local market that might be able to help us get some deals going! I'd also lose to meet/talk with real estate investors local to me in and around Orange County, CA.

Anyways, hello all! Thanks for being an awesome community, I've already learned a lot by reading what people have discussed here, and I know I'm just getting started.