New investor hailing from Grand Rapids, Michigan

[Tyler DeNooyer]

Hello BP community!

My name is Tyler and I'm interested in real estate investing in the West Michigan area.  I am an extroverted Civil Engineer - I know, crazy right?  I have a bachelors degree from Calvin College, and a master's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I met my wife at Calvin College and she is a speech pathologist.  We've been putting our noses to the grindstone trying to pay off our (way too high) student debt.  We've made excellent progress and I'm looking forward to when we'll start having cash each month to begin investing.

I am most interested in buy and hold strategies and beginning to create (semi) passive income streams.  How I get there is up for debate.  Through reading books, listening to podcasts, and networking I'm hoping to narrow down a niche I can exploit in the Grand Rapids area.  I currently enjoy my full time consulting job and I am looking for opportunities to get involved in real estate in my spare time.

I'm looking to get more involved in this community in the future in order to break into this new passion of mine.  As a first question, does anyone in the Grand Rapids area have an accountant they'd recommend?  As I'm preparing my 2017 taxes, I would like to begin a relationship with an accountant that also invests in real estate and works with real estate investors in my area.  Thanks in advance for the help!

Cheers!