new member from Jacksonville, Fl.

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Hi everyone,

I've been lurking the board for a few days and never really thought about real estate until the past few weeks while searching for a home for my family and I.

I happened across a house that looked abandoned but just in need of some tlc, I had passed by it a few times in the past but assumed it was way out of our reach because it has an excellent location.

after riding around with my agent doing walkthroughs of other property in the same area I told him I wanted to show him the house and we went by there again, this time it was listed with a different broker and we called him up to get some info. turns out they are asking less than $200k for it, this really got me interested and I came home and started doing my own investigation on the property.

turns out it was a bank repo, the previous owners had defaulted within 6 months of the purchase last year and it has been empty ever since.
through more research i also found out that the original mortgage was $390k.

I was having fun conducting my investigation and trying to figure out exactly what caused this place to look as though someone had left in such a hurry, posters still on the wall, dog house on the porch, etc.

I always thought real estate was too risky and too complicated for me to get into but also realized the huge potential for income. I'm starting to get familiar with real estate terms and it doesnt seem nearly as complicated as I had originally thought.

I'm looking at that house as our primary residence but after reading over some of the posts on this board I've decided that we could also get into buying and selling property, florida has a growing economy, especially in my area and it's continuing to grow as new business (2 more japanese shipping companies, cruise lines and more new airlines) move into the area. that combined with baby boomers retiring and looking to move to milder climates. I suspect that the real estate market will continue to grow along with it and i'd like to jump on for the ride.

Of course thats going to take a whole lot of work in fixing my horriable credit, I had a few bad situations over the years and it's taken it's toll on my credit report....got my hours and pay cut as a result of 9/11, eviction, fell behind on student loans which then went into default, bankruptcy, became a daddy, got hit with child support...etc etc

on a positive note my girlfriend is about to complete nursing school in about 2 weeks and her credit isnt great but nowhere near the disaster that mine is. things should be looking up soon as there is a major shortage of nurses and they'll be fighting over offering her a well paying new job.

meanwhile i'm going to kep plugging away at repairing my credit and learn as much as I can about real estste investing and hopefully one day we can be as successfull as some of you.