New member from seattle

[Matt D]

Hello BP members,

My name is Matthew Durden and I've been lurking around this site for a few months now and the information on here is almost overwhelming! So I really wanted to take a chance to introduce myself and give all you guys a huge thank you for all the great information.

So as far as some background, I moved to the North Snohomish area of Washington state from Alaska about a year ago and It was definitely a huge change for me. I started working as a lifeguard for several months until an amazing opportunity fell in my lap to run a painting franchise over the summer. Having no experience in sales or any other job other than as a lifeguard, I was both extremely excited to be my own boss, but at the same time scared out of my mind. Fast forward several months to now and I am running a successful, profitable painting business at 19 years old which quiet honestly I am very proud of.

As great as running a franchise is I really didn't plan on doing this my whole life, and remodeling seemed really interesting to me at first. During an estimate with an elderly couple I had mentioned my interest in remodeling to them and they told me about a neighbor of theirs who "Fixes and Flips" homes for a living, so naturally I was very curious and asked if I could meet her. Long story short she told me about how she found properties for less than market price fixed them up and sold them, and offered to let me come along to check out some of the flips she has in progress (they do all the work themselves). As soon as I got home I started to learn as much as I could and eventually stumbled upon this site which introduced me to every other aspect of real estate investing as well.

My goal is to finish painting this summer and use the money I make to start up a wholesaling business and send out about 2000 yellow letter mailers and see where it takes me. Eventually buying my own wholesale properties and flip them myself, then taking the profit from the flips and investing in passive income sources, mainly multi-plex rentals/Apartment complexes. My experiences with my painting franchise I feel will directly relate to wholesaling, as I deal with homeowners on a daily basis and understand creating internal systems to help automate processes such as lead generation and miscellaneous daily administrative items.

So in closing, I am very excited to be a member here at biggerpockets! This site has showed me a career that I never knew existed and I can't thank you all enough for providing me with the information that is going to help me for the years to come. All in all I cannot wait to get started and eventually pass on the knowledge I will learn to people who will also be looking to make a life changing decision to get involved in this field as well.

Thanks,
Matt