New investor in Olympia Washington!

[Sean Schneegas]

Hello BP community! I am a new (again) investor looking to get my foot in the door with REI. I say new (again) because I once looked into REI earlier in my life, did a bunch of research, read several books, but found it very difficult to pursue given my life situation at the time. I figured that if I was unsure at that time, maybe it wasnt the best time to pull the trigger. I lived in Colorado for almost my whole life and dreamed of moving away from the small coal mining town I lived in and live in a place where I can pursue my dream career of firefighting. My wife finished her Nursing degree, I finished my fire science degree and away we went! Now that life has stabilized a little bit (still not a firefighter, but I'll get it soon enough), I wanted to get back into investing. One thing I really lacked before was a community such as BP. It existed, but I didnt know about it. I am very excited to get started in real estate investing and cannot wait to learn from everyone here who is willing to teach! So to close out my introduction, I wanted to share a few goals of mine. Obviously financial freedom would be great, but my honest goal through all this is to build a future that I am in control of. One that allows me to be there for my children and their children, and even their children if the world lets me stay that long. I want to be able to live my life knowing that I can focus my time on my family and not my finances. I want to be there for those moments that only happen once in life. I feel like I missed so much of their childhood already, and it was never for my benefit. Long hours for my employer and never for myself. I know Im not the only one who does it for these reasons, but I know it means a lot to me so I am sticking with it! Short term goal, buy 1 property and make it profitable. Long term goal, repeat as many times as necessary. Lastly, if there is anyone in the Olympia area that likes coffee or IPAs and wants to meet up sometime, Id love to meet new people in the area who have similar goals as me! I'll buy the first round. Again, I am excited to be here in this community! Cant wait to meet the awesome people here! Who knows, maybe we will work together one day!

[John Barrett]

@Sean Schneegas You should also checkout meetup.com for various local groups getting together.  Most were on pause for the last year and a half but now people are starting to have meetups as the state reopens.  Additionally, there are a number of Facebook groups covering different areas and types of rentals that are really good for networking and information. I like the WAREI group a lot but there are also a number of others that are really good as well.

Best of luck in all your investing,

John