Newbie from Hollywood, South Florida

[Faye Omar]

Hi BiggerPockets Community!

My background:

My name is Faye and I am originally from Toronto, Canada but currently residing in beautiful, sunny, Hollywood, Florida.  I have completed a BA in psychology and associates in Computer Programming.  I do web development as a freelancer but after running into some financial hardships I just want better return for my time and money. :)

REI experience:

My background in REI is that I've helped my mom sell her house while working with an agent and got exposure to the many aspects of selling a home. Unfortunately, I did not have enough education at that time to be able pinpoint things that would've helped us sell the house better. If I could go back, I'd sell it by myself. I did not have the best experience with the agent selling our home. However, my mom really needed the money so I did everything I could to sell her house. For example, a friend and I ended up painting the living room, halls, bathrooms, and staircase by ourselves. We re-did the floors upstairs from carpet to laminate wood. A coworker and I bought all of the staging pieces with my credit card from department stores. If you're curious how it ended up here is a link to a video of it: http://www.silverhousehd.com/real-estate-video-tou...

I regret not painting the room with the LIME GREEN WALLS! 

We bought the house at $360K in 2007 and then sold it in 2014 for $499.  Since then the RE in Toronto-Area has skyrocketed so we should've held on to it for 6 more months.  But that's the point or else we'd all be millionaires.

That little transaction sparked my interest in REI and here I am today. Also, can't help that all the glamour around the fix-flip shows on TV just got me hooked!!!

My recent effort is that I took the Doug Hopkins 3-day seminar and learned A LOT. I finished reading his book which was very helpful with real example and formulas etc.  

How I learned about BiggerPockets:

After asking a REI friend about the Doug Hopkins event, he suggested rather than attending that I should start with BiggerPockets. Even though I went against his advice regarding the workshop, I still joined BiggerPockets and so glad that I did! :)

REI GOALS:

Short-term goals, I would really like to close my first deal just to get a taste of the pie.  It would be dream come true to be part of a team to guide real-world practical action but these days everybody charges $$ to be part of something like that.  It would also be really nice to be accepted into this community and become a contributing member.

Long-term I would love to get into fix-flips as it would channel my business side and also some design/creative aspects.  Also, long-term I would like to invest in at least 2-4 Rental units.

I would love to get to know you guys so as a fun conversation starter tell me, why do you read the newbie intro posts?