Old investor, new member, from Northern CA

[Brian Burke]

Hello everyone,

I'm not new to real estate investing, but I've never been much of a forum guy. I've heard of BP over the years but thought I'd join to see what is going on in the world outside of my typical everyday routine. I've always been pretty busy running my business and haven't left any time for reading forums and posting stuff but thought that from time to time I might have something to contribute.

I'm in Santa Rosa CA which is the heart of the wine country. That would be great if I drank wine so instead of touring wineries I invest in RE. Started not long after high school while nearly penniless and working a job at $13/hour. Bought my first flip by cash-advancing a stack of credit cards (that I somehow managed to qualify for by returning "pre-approved" offers that came in the mail) using the money for $1,500 walking money for the seller plus fix-up costs, taking the property subject-to. Sure was exciting being young, naive, and having nothing to lose.

20 years older, wiser, and hundreds of properties later I manage my own privately held real estate private equity firm. I make my living flipping houses and apartment complexes, and make my future with rentals, both single family and multifamily. I've built a motel (take my advice--DON'T), developed housing projects and a self storage facility. From where I sit, residential investing is much better than development.

If I'm not working (how often does THAT ever happen?) I like to travel to Maui, and enjoy my favorite hobby - aviation. Started flying airplanes at 16 years old with the money I made bagging groceries and still love it to this day. Now learning to fly helicopters, that's about as challenging as trying to find motivated sellers with equity that call on bandit signs to unload prime properties that need no rehab.

I'm not really sure why I joined BP but I think that's the beauty of it...time will show me why. Maybe I can help some people, maybe I meet some friends, maybe I strike a deal that I otherwise would have missed. At the very least, I'll kill some time...although that is probably the last thing I need!