Newbie from Western New York (Buffalo and Niagara Falls area)

[James Partsch Jr]

Hello BiggerPockets community! My name is James Partsch Jr and I am happy to finally have made the move to join the community as a Pro member. I lurked for quite a while, but it was time to take the next move and join a large network of people with experience to learn from, diverse backgrounds, and similar financial interests.

I am a moderate DIY’er and purchased my first home for $12,000 as a short sale (it was once offered for $3,000). This just goes to show that there are still crazy deals like this if you look hard enough. My now wife (then girlfriend of only one year) jumped right in with me and we closed off a back area that collapsed, removed that from the structure, closed off the upstairs, and made the lower livable. After the lower was done we began a full rehab on the upstairs, keeping the home zoned two family, separating utilities, and gutting to the studs. We eventually did the same with the lower and live in the entire home. We are moving out in two months to finally cash flow the property and will be leveraging the equity to find the next deal.

I grew up around rehabs as my father and stepmother as they rehabbed 13 properties in the western NY area. It is now time for me to take that experience and evolve it to fit what I wish to do. My goal is to pursue the BRRRR model as I want to generate sufficient income from multi-unit homes to allow me to expand my investing business into a full-time affair replacing my current 9 to 5. The Buffalo area is beginning to see the growth that I feel will make it catch up to the other larger metro markets over the next 5-10 years. My wife and I will be a part of that growth and help to revive the homes in our city. I am also open to flipping if the deal is right but prefer to hold the property as my priority.

For my current paycheck, I am in Senior Management at New Era Cap as a Program Manager of digital programs. I get to work with an amazing brand to bring our sales tools and commerce into the current atmosphere of e-commerce through innovative business process engineering and technological system builds. I help take ideas, turn them into actions, and ensure those actions result in measurable benefits. I would love to use my experience and consult other organizations while I build my real estate investment portfolio. Having a PMP and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification have helped me create a process-oriented approach to executing strategy and analyzing data to prioritize initiatives as well as course correct well before issues become catastrophic. I am also well versed in Agile methodologies which I feel is underutilized in the real estate industry and will give me an asset to bring to the table with future partners. I should have my Agile Certified Practitioner certification by the end of July.

The next steps for me are to find my next deal and really what I consider my first deal as it will be purely from an investing standpoint. I also will continue to build out my personal brand for investing and consulting as these two ventures will complement each other nicely. I want my next deal before the close of 2018 and then two more in 2019 at an absolute minimum. The goal is to be transitioning into self-employment in 2020.

I have been following the BiggerPockets community through podcasts and webinars for the last year. I am looking forward to finding a mentor that can show me the ropes and hopefully I can give back through managing some projects. I knew it was time to take my goals to the next level and felt BiggerPockets was the ideal community to begin learning from and participating in. I look forward to learning from those with the experience I don’t have and learning alongside those going through the same growth I am experiencing. I hope that I am able to share with the community and bring yet another perspective that is beneficial.