Finally Joining BP Community After My First Deal

[Eric Flatt]

Hi all, I've been a LONG time lurker of BiggerPockets, listening to the Podcasts as I commute to work and reading countless articles by BP contributors as I learned about real estate investing.  I live in Chicago and started looking for my first deal (house hack) at the beginning of 2017.  I spent the the majority of last year searching and finally got a duplex under contract in November 2017 - my first deal!  I closed on it in January of this year and did some serious renovations to get it market competitive (not a rehab, but a lot of modernizing and cap ex).  The duplex was unoccupied when I closed on it.  I finished remodeling in April and got my first tenant in there by mid May!  Last year I made the decision that I wouldn't join BP until I closed my first deal and had my first tenant.  It's official and I'm excited I was able to get it done thanks in no small part to the material and excellent content and motivation from listening to the BP Podcasts.   This duplex is my first deal in my strategy of buy and hold multi-family properties.  I hope to get beyond small multi-family properties and go into medium-size multi-families.  I look forward to engaging and contributing to the community!