Chicago suburbs newbie

[Brandon Reda]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Brandon Reda, I’m 27 years old and I’ve been in the construction business for roughly 8 years, more specifically, commercial hvac. I run a crew of workers and love what I do, but I’m just looking for financial freedom. My fiancé and I live in the western Chicago suburbs, st Charles, and it’s pretty expensive out here. Luckily I flipped the foreclosure I lived in for a few years and made a $50k profit which allowed us to buy this home. It was a very out dated home, and showed poorly but we renovated everything in the house ourselves from flooring, plumbing, granite, etc. I stated listening to the BiggerPockets podcasts about a month ago and worked my way up to show 80. We have a wedding in 3 months, but after that I want to start flipping on the side. I have a couple friends who make very good money and are willing to invest, I finish work at 2pm so I have plenty of extra time needed to flip, and I could always leave a couple hours early and take calls. My goal is flip 3 houses next year, one at a time to get a better feel for it, primarily in Kane county and dupage county. At first I’m going to do a lot of the work myself as well as paying contractors I’ve met over the years to do side work (drywall, electrical, roofing), but eventually I’d like to automize everything, and a few years down the line once I have a bit of capital, I’d like to start investing in rental properties. Then one day pursue investing in real estate notes, tax liens, etc so I could free up my time to manage this hvac company, since my father is the owner and I’m the highest foreman. At first I might reach out to a couple well known realtors in the area, even try to find a wholesaler. If anyone has any advice for me or knows the area well, feel free to leave me a message. I look forward to growing and learning as much as possible! Thanks for reading!