Newbie from Oroville, CA

[Mark Collins]

HI,

My name is Mark Collins and I am in Oroville, CA.  This is northern California near Chico and Yuba City/Marysville.  I joined BiggerPockets about 7 months ago and have been listening to the podcasts to try and get myself educated.  I found BiggerPockets after going to a real estate investment seminar that I paid a couple hundred dollars for.  I liked the pitch and signed up for their several thousands of dollars mentoring program.  During the seminar, they mentioned that we shouldn't go online because there are sites that would put down the paid mentors.  So of course I went online and searched for several real estate sites.  About the only one I could find was BiggerPockets.  I joined just to see what was on the site, but didn't pay it much attention.  I did realize pretty quickly that maxing out my credit cards was probably not the best way to manage my real estate investing, so I canceled the mentoring within a day and got a full refund.  

My wife and I purchased our first property back in 2001.  We planned to move into the house, but that didn't happen right away.  We rented it until we moved into it and remained in our existing home in the Bay Area until 2006.  In 2007 our Bay Area home sold providing us with some extra cash.

My wife and I purchased our next property in 2007 with the idea of flipping it.  We did a complete renovation, literally flipping the house (shifting living room to bedroom side of the house and vice-versa.  The market dropped out so we rented it out for a couple of years.  We tried to be helpful and rent it to people in need.  Needless to say, the property was not treated well and we didn't make much money on it.  The second property we bought in 2008 at a foreclosure auction.  We did some basic remodeling on it and rented it out.  Our last tenant was in for about 4 years.  Ultimately, he did alot of damage so we are now doing a complete renovation on the home.  We are planning on getting it up for sale in the next month and are looking to do more investing.  This time I want to be smarter about it.  

I have found the podcasts very informative. I have started at the beginning and listen to a couple of podcasts each day during my daily commute. My plan is to create an LLC as the business entity and use flipping to provide a financial engine to getting into long term holds. I plan to grow into several commercial rentals, probably 5-12 units each.

So I am here at BiggerPockets so I can learn from those that have been through what I am starting out on and be part of the community.  My background is in software development and web application development, so I know I can assist with technology related questions.  I am excited to get into real estate with more energy and really grow a business.  I do enjoy the work that I do, but I am looking to build a business so that within five years, I have enough rental income coming in that I can move to real estate investing full time.