New to the St. Louis Metro Area (Edwardsville, IL)

[Matt Ware]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a part time investor (working full time) in the St. Louis area, focused on buy and hold multi-family properties. Looking forward to meeting other local investors.

I did my first deal last year, a 4 unit. At the beginning of this year I picked up a foreclosed single family that will be finished this month, which I already have a buyer for which is a plus. I started an LLC with an ex Air Force buddy and we currently have day jobs in the city while my father runs the day to day operations as he has 35 + years in the property management and construction trades.

One of my goals is to generate enough cash flow to replace my income where I can do what I want to.

My experience has mainly come from following my old man around my whole life taking in all of his knowledge of how things work. Coming back to IL after doing by duty in the Air Force I figured it was time to get started on my dream and doing it right.

I have lurked on the site for awhile grabbing knowledge from everyone I can and I figured it was time I started to give back and network since I am pretty new to this area.

[Ronald Perich]

@Matt WareWelcome to BiggerPockets! Since you are interested in meeting others, there are a couple of groups you might be interested in. 

The first is the Metro East REIA. We meet on the second Monday of the month in Collinsville at the American Legion. Check out their somewhat-dated website at http://metroeastreia.com/. I've been pretty faithful about attending and I think it's a great resource for local investors, especially landlords.

@Peter MacKercherhas a meetup established in St Louis over at http://www.meetup.com/Saint-Louis-Real-Estate-Inve.... It moves around from month to month and I haven't been able to attend any of them yet, but I hear it's a good time!