Hitting the ground running

[Ryan Kunzmann]

Hello everyone!

This will probably be a long one so buckle up. A little about me, I'm 29 years old, a former Marine(Sergeant, Linguist and Signals Analyst), currently live in NYC but consider Pittsburgh, PA home. I have 5 siblings and a niece(and another on the way). I recently came into a windfall which I am looking to turn into generational wealth for my family as well as pay for my Mothers living expenses and younger siblings college.

I've been interested in RE investing for a long time but never got too serious with it. I think Rich Dad, Poor Dad is the book that got me started on it back when I was about 19 or 20, so it's been a long time coming. My current work also has me in close contact with a lot of developers and property managers in NYC so I've been able to glean a lot of wisdom that way. If you're a property manager in NYC we may have exchanged emails or talked on the phone before!

I have a lot of family and resources in Pittsburgh already and the lower prices there are a lot less intimidating to me than here in NYC. I already travel back and forth there at least once a month so it seems like a good jumping off point for my RE career. I mainly looking to get into BRRRR properties or just buy and hold rentals for now but definitely would like to get into flipping once I'm able to move back to Pittsburgh. I've also considered looking into becoming a private lender but I feel I should experience the RE game myself before I start lending money out to others.

I've been researching heavily, pounding through 1-2 podcasts a day and am in the process of finding a lawyer, accountant, agent and any other people I may need in my RE journey. I'm looking to purchase my first property by the end of January and would like to have a minimum of 6 homes by the end of 2018 but I'm really aiming for 10 in my first year.

If anyone is in NYC or Pittsburgh and would like to chat I'm always happy to have a coffee(or beer or whiskey). Otherwise, I'm always open to adding more colleagues and chatting here on BP, even if it's not RE related, connections are connections!

[Kevin Schulz]

Hey Ryan,

Welcome to the RE investing world!  It might help to get a good bookkeeper separate from your CPA.  Your CPA will handle the taxes and advise on use of various financing avenues.  A good bookkeeper/financial advisor can get you setup with automated processes to make sure you know exactly where you stand for each property and show where every dime is spent.  Plus, they can provide you with monthly information and project (rehab) tracking information as you need it.   They can also help you with cash flow forecasting.  Getting setup right to begin with makes a big difference!  Once you get those 10 properties... you certainly don't want to be spending a bunch of time keeping track of expenses and paying bills.

Just a recommendation.   Good luck this year!