New Dreamer in North Central Ohio

[Zachariah Adkins]

Hello Everyone, 

My name is Zachariah (Zach) Adkins. I joined BiggerPockets a while ago, but I never engaged with the forum. Perhaps it was because I didn't want to ask a dumb question, or maybe I just thought that I would never be able to get started. Either way, it's definitely time to engage. 

A little about myself, I'm 32 years old and I have a wonderful bride and three young children. I'm currently an over the road truck driver and that's not what I thought I'd be doing when I got out of the Navy. After a 10 year Navy career I decided to get out to be able to spend more time with family. That's not exactly easy to do when I'm driving a semi all over this beautiful country during the week. It's a respectable job with good pay and good benefits, but I spend way too much time away from home. I also have plenty of time to think, and listen to the BiggerPockets Podcast while soaking up as much knowledge as possible so it's time I do what needs to be done to change my circumstances. 

The first house we bought was a short sale. We paid 190k for it and lived in it for a little over three years. I updated the flooring and painted all the walls throughout the house. The baseboards were chewed up from animals so I replaced all of the wood trim throughout the house. There must have been four different types of door knobs on the doors and none of the lighting in the house matched. All the lighting fixtures and ceiling fans were changed and the door knobs were replaced so that everything looked pleasing to the eye. I also replaced all of the outlets and light switches throughout the house. The only work that I didn't do myself was the exterior paint work. We're not exactly sure how much was spent on renovations. It was done over about a two year period and we didn't keep good records. I've estimated it to be around 15K, and that also includes putting in a new HVAC system. We ended up selling the house for 247,500. It was on the market for less that 24 hours and we had two full price offers. That was a good feeling, and that's also where the seed was planted in me to get started in real estate. 

I learned a lot with that first house. I have a lot more to learn and I'm thankful for BiggerPockets and the community it provides to assist in my learning process. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to meeting you fine folks here at BiggerPockets. 

- Zach