Young accounting professional from Bay Area starting in REI

[Mark Balliet]

Hello everyone,

My name is Mark and I graduated from Cal Poly with a bachelor's degree in Business with an emphasis in Accounting in June 2016. For the last year, I've been working for a regional public accounting firm (auditing) saving towards my first investment property. As I begin to accumulate cash for a down payment on an investment property, I felt officially joining the forums would be a great place to start (I'm a longtime lurker).

Currently, I have no background in real estate investing but am hoping to find an investor in my area to apprentice. In addition, I'm planning to attend meetups in my area and continue reading books on REI.

My current goal is to accumulate equity and cash flow. Being from the Bay Area (San Jose), I'm currently looking inland for my first purchase (Stockton, Modesto, Oakdale, Tracy, etc). Multifamily homes interest me for obvious reasons, but I'm open to all ideas. I plan to have at least $10K available for investment by the start of 2018.

My goal for joining BiggerPockets is to network with like-minded individuals, gain motivation from your guys' success and widen my REI knowledge. Both of my parents are blue-collar workers (Dad is a painter, mom worked in construction) who didn't have the opportunities they've presented me and I'd love to provide them with housing and possibly an exit from the "rat race" as their working careers come to an end.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to meeting you all.

Mark