Hello BP! Kruze from Vegas, first post but I've been around BP.

[John Kruze]

Hello everyone!

Kruze here, I'm an investor out of Las Vegas, NV. I'm big into fitness, mindfulness, public speaking, and of course real estate! Definitely a big personal development guy and love Brandon's suggested book list, I read most of the non real estate books before finding BP. I've listened to a ton of podcasts, read books, and realize it's far past time I get active on these forums, so here I am. I look forward to interacting with and making big things happen with everyone here!

I left my previous industry just over a year ago, moved from LA to Vegas(what a cost and traffic difference!) and after I few months mulling things over, I knew real estate investing was for me. I'd love to find more meet ups, networking events, and simply more people that are in the space that I'm in too. 

Most of what I've done was pre BP immersion and might be less than optimal but I'm happy with how things are going so far. 

Experience

First property(pre BP) I had the house hack idea in mind, I just didn't consider multiple units. I purchased a split level home with a casita, both of the tenant occupied rooms are downstairs while I live upstairs, so it's not bad at all. 
Learning experiences here:
1) I don't like living with tenants - multiple units is the way to go
2) I didn't analyze the deal well(Pre BP) and my ROI is less than ideal(consider all expenses), I am in the black though
3) Don't buy cash just as you move out of an industry, it's harder to get money back out 

4) Read CC&Rs, there's no street parking here and I definitely wouldn't have made this purchase with my interest in renting out space
5) Make sure your real estate agent gets you your CC&Rs(First purchase, I didn't know any better)

6) Take some time and learn what agents are doing and supposed to do, really a big one

Second property is a little one in Arizona with two partners, not very significant but it's nice to add a door with a bit of cash flow. 

After purchasing my first property I decided to get my own real estate license for a variety of reasons:

1) I was under the impression that if I wanted to get into real estate, getting a license was just part of the process, having it doesn't hurt.

2) After I failed to receive CC&Rs or have the idea of no street parking run by me(gated communities are rare in LA) considering my agent was fully aware of my intention to have tenants, I decided I wanted to be able to advocate for myself as well as have access to a vast number of agents to weed out the bad ones.

3) MLS access and an understanding of what agents are actually doing for commission

Goals

1) Big over arching goal is to get to $100k annual passive income through real estate investing

2) Add a minimum of two properties to my portfolio in 2018(possibly 3-4)

3) Get to know more real estate investors as well as other real estate professionals 

I look forward to hearing from all of you!

Best regards,
Kruze