Newbie from Grand Rapids, MI

[Nick Longstreet]

Hey everyone! My name is Nick Longstreet and I live in the Grand Rapids, MI area (Holland to be exact). I'm just starting out with this whole REI thing and have a lot to learn still, but I am super excited to be a part of such a large community of like-minded people! As I said, I live in Holland, MI with my wife, Jocelyn, and our 8-month-old son, Rennon. As of right now, I work a pretty "normal" factory job, but my biggest goal is to be able to get out of that grind. I'd love to be able to say that we live financially free and not paycheck to paycheck someday, which is my biggest driving force for really diving into my education in real estate investing. I'm trying to be a big sponge and soak up as much knowledge from books and others already doing this, so if you have any tips or advice, please don't hesitate :).

[Robert VanZee]

HI Nick,

I live in Hudsonville currently and started investing 3 years ago this week. I was also interested in a backup income for my W2 job. I use the BRRRR strategy and have 5 properties in GR, 1 in Muskegon and I am a partner in a 4 unit vacation rental in FL. My advice to a newbie would be to go to the local meetup (RPOA has a meetup 1st Monday of the month at BW3 in Grandville) and find a real estate agent who ALSO owns investment properties. I started with Paul Leason at Berkshire Hathaway in GR and his knowledge was invaluable. I am comfortable now doing FSBO without an agent but I still bounce all of my potential deals off Paul for analysis.

Hope this helps and Ill see you at the meetup!

Bob