Hi, New Member from Seattle WA area

[Amie D.]

Hi all, I guess I just jumped in and started posting without introducing myself. My location right now is the Seattle, WA area but I have only lived here a month. I currently own 3 properties, one is a SFR in Bloomington, IN, another is in the process of being rented just outside of Cincinnati in Northern KY, the other is in Northern Indiana on the market for sale.

I started in real estate by buying my first house in 1998 in California, a 3 br 2 ba SF which I bought on a short sale, renovated and then rented out rooms to interns or employees of the company. At the time I was an engineer (my first degree) so had a pretty easy time finding qualified renters/roommates. I then sold that house, made a decent amount from the work I had done on it and buying low/selling high. After I traveled around the world for a while I then bought another house in Bloomington, IN while I went to graduate school. This house was a fixer I bought cheap in an up and coming area (that is now trendy), renovated, and then rented out rooms to other grad students while living there. I moved when I finished my Master's in Journalism and it became a full time rental that I was still self-managing. In the meantime, I moved to N. Indiana, and helped my Dad renovate his house, which I recently inherited and decided to put on the market due to the ROI if I rented it out.

I moved to Cincinnati when I got a full time job as a photojournalist. In '09 bought another house and renovated it with the intention of eventually moving and renting it out, at this time hired a PM for my SFR in Indiana. I moved to Washington state recently and hired a PM for my house in KY, and am in the process of renting that one out as well.

I am currently deciding what I want to do next, but as far as real estate goes, I would probably like to expand my portfolio of rentals, though I don't know that it will ever be a full time thing for me.

This site is fantastic! I felt like I was kind of flailing in the dark before as the KY rental is a brand new demographic that requires more hands-on managing. I hope I am not asking too many questions to start out... but I had so many unanswered questions before and felt kind of stuck as to who to ask, outside of reading books.