Introduction - I’m excited to be a part of this community!

[Tyler Erickson]

Hello! I just wanted to take a second to THANK YOU ALL! I’ve been following the forums for about six months now, but have not posted (or even made a profile) until recently. Really though, I don’t say this lightly. You all changed my life. I was fairly undisciplined with my personal spending after growing up in an incredibly poor household with a single mother (working in real estate during the global recession) trying to raise my two younger siblings and me. I received almost zero financial education from my mother, mostly just because every dime she had went only towards necessities. I made some financial mistakes that I finally almost fully caught up on, and that’s all because of these forums! It was because of the BiggerPockets forums and podcasts that I was able to do so. Without all of your knowledge and expertise on personal development and financial planning, I’d be exactly where I was for years. In debt and with bad credit. Now, I finally feel that I’ve almost climbed out of that hole, and I absolutely had to introduce myself! I’ve been involved in real estate for years (as my mother is now a Certified General appraiser), and I currently operate a commercial and residential valuation firm in Minneapolis, MN. The last piece of this puzzle is to finally buy property and rent it out! I’ll most likely wait for Q2 or Q3 next year (depending on what the Fed decides in the next couple days), but it’s also dependent on my ability to boost my credit score a little more and save (I just paid off most of my debt, outside of school loans). Anyways, I am looking forward to being a part of this community! And you guys are awesome! 👌

[Tchaka Owen]

@Tyler Erickson - It's always good to read positive posts! This is step one, the next step you'll be sharing your first big deal and it will keep going up from there.