Hello BP Community! My name is Rob Shedden and I live in Rockford, IL. My wife and I have recently decided to get into investing in real estate. And what a crazy, short journey it has already been...

I am a project manager for a shipping/distributing company and my wife works in health care; I am pretty handy and my wife is an avid HGTV watcher. We have had pretty typical dealings with real estate thus far... In our first home, I finished 550 sf of the basement (for a play room for our kids) on my own, and we completed a DIY kitchen remodel shortly before selling in 2015. We then purchased a HUD property with an interest only rehab loan and fixed it up ourselves, using minimal contractors. The "fix up" included a full gut and remodel of the kitchen with a layout change; remodeled and rearranged master bathroom and closet (with removal of a HUGE 1970's party tub!); hardwood flooring install in master bedroom; remodeled hall bath; new Furnace, A/C, water heater, water softener. We refinanced the rehab loan into a 30-year fixed at 3.625% in 2016. So yeah, we thought we knew a lot about real estate...

As for our recent journey into investing... We initially liked the idea of owning multi-family rentals. I mean, who wouldn't love a monthly check in the mail and growing equity steak in a property at the same time? But then we realized we don't have enough capital to jump into that just yet. So we thought house flipping might me just the right strategy to develop enough capital to get into multi-families. But, again, where to get that capital?? Thanks to BP, I've learned about the nuances of lender financing vs. private money vs. hard money. So we are attempting to jump in with both feet... We just went to see a REO condo and are planning to put in an offer this week. I don't think we will get it... But after going through the arduous task of developing a fully detailed rehab plan and market analysis, we feel it was invaluable practice. The more times we complete this type of analysis on a potential deal, the better and more accurate we will get.

As for our exact intentions at this time... we plan to setup an LLC and use hard money to finance out first fix and flip deal. Selling it outright will be our primary exit strategy and refinancing in to a rental will be our back-up strategy. It seems like there are so many opportunities for people to invest and/or profit from the many different aspects of real estate. I am glad I have stumbled on to this great website/community. I will be watching and learning; and hope to give back one day. Please share any advice or resources that you think most rookies need when getting started in this industry.

Glad to have found BP!

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