New Investor, Here To Learn, Pittsburgh Area Based.

[Dustin L. Jones]

Hi Everyone, When Covid started and my office closed for a few weeks I decided I was going to learn about 2 things, Real Estate Investing and buying and selling stocks, calls and puts. Several books, hundreds of hours of you tube and podcasts and discussions with my wife we are buying our first investment property this September-October. I’m a Safety Manager for a large oil and gas company but I started life as a mechanic and then was a punch list general contractor for several builders here in Western PA until 2007. Made a move into Radioactive Materials Remediation (I know weird move) and was hired by a large oil and gas company 2.5 years later as their Radioactive Materials Manager, learned explosives compliance along the way and spent my last 5 years there traveling all over the U.S. as their Corporate Radiation and Explosives Manager. 2017, Good Job, Good Pay, New Baby and then a heating fuel oil truck had a spill on my property and made its way into my home and under my homes footer, DEP got involved and to remediate it they had to tear down the house and we lost everything. After 1.5 years of fighting an insurance company, we started over, bought a house last year, I changed to a job where I’m home every night and my 2nd baby was born. I love my current company and my job but I’m tired of working for someone else. We have a 10 year plan and then I’m done working for anyone but me ( and the wife). Sorry for the long story but I’m excited to get into this and I hope to gain a lot of knowledge for here and I’m interested in making any connections in or around the Pittsburgh area. I live in Washington, PA.

Dustin

[Gary Swank]

@Dustin L. Jones Hi Dustin, Very interesting story and welcome to REI. Seems like you made good used of your downtime and now with your goals defined you are ready to embark on your journey into investing.

Pittsburgh, PA is certainly a great market for investors, both local and remote to the area, as the buy-in is more conducive than other more saturated markets. Pittsburgh has really reinvented itself from the "Steel City" to the "Tech city". Major players have planted roots here like Amazon, Google, Ford/Argo AI, Duolingo as well as dozens of smaller start-ups fueled in part by Carnegie Mellon's influence. You may have read recently about Carnegie Mellon Universities' research into providing microneedle drug delivery patches for the Covid-19 vaccine. Beyond that there are many infrastructure initiatives slated for Pittsburgh in the coming years such as plans to develop the former Civic Arena site with housing, offices, hotels etc., work has already started on the hotel that will be part of a larger development called the Esplanade near the Rivers Casino. Also the high speed Hyperloop though I hear that is a couple of decades away. Bottom line is that where there is construction, generally you'll find a city that is booming. And that translates into a surge of people looking to rent. That's again why many investors are drawn to Pittsburgh. 

The trick is to find the right property that fits your needs/means. Neighborhoods change so much and types of properties change street to street and often on the same street. Finding that property that generates income and/or higher resale value is the goal. I might suggest getting with someone that really knows Pittsburgh and have them show you around. Someone who knows the best areas, the various types of investment properties, the current/potential rents, and of course can connect you with various other professionals in the industry from property managers, to contractors, lenders and so on.  I wish you all the best....Gary