Newbie Investor - Multifamily - Chicagoan living in San Francisco

[Matt Sullivan]

Hello BiggerPockets community!  I've been following BiggerPockets for quite a while and plan to make the plunge into multifamily income property investing in the second half of 2018.

I'm born and raised in the Chicago area (northern suburbs), went to THE Ohio State University (Go Bucks!), and currently live in San Francisco.  I currently work as an investment consultant for institutions such as healthcare organizations, endowments & foundations, defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, etc.  I am a level III CFA candidate for those in the finance world, and I'm very excited to hopefully get that monkey off of my back after the June exam and turn all my study hours into real estate investing hours.

Since I'm not trying to invest in such a hot market like San Francisco for my first deal, I'm focused on out-of-state investing. The short list of potential cities include Chicago, Minneapolis, Columbus, and Richmond, VA. That being said, I'm still evaluating all options in terms of which cities to invest. I'm currently reading @David Greene's "Long-Distance Real Estate Investing" and if you haven't read it, I HIGHLY recommend it whether or not your properties are in another state or in your backyard, he deploys a great system and I plan to steal many of his tricks.

My focus is on commercial multifamily properties right off the bat (5-10 unit range).  The learning curve will be steep, but my longer-term goal is to be purchasing apartment complexes large enough to support on-site property management, leasing agent, handyman, etc., so I figure get used to the commercial real estate business and help myself get to my long-term goal a bit faster.  I plan on partnering with an investor on the first deal (a few wealthy relatives and friends are on the short list), with the mindset of doubling my units under management each year.  My focus right now is deal evaluation so that I can do them in my sleep, and building my team of rockstars.

Looking forward to working with the BiggerPockets community!

-Matt