New Member from Albuquerque NM Area

[David Torres]

I wanted to make a quick introduction. I live in Rio Rancho New Mexico (Suburb of Albuquerque).

I have always been interested in real estate. Some of my earliest memories are going to collect rent with my late Grandfather and helping him fix up his rental units.

I went off to college, got married, and we bought our first home while my wife was in law school in Lubbock, TX. It was a good home, but the previous owners were 3 single college guys. It needed some work (paint, flooring, landscaping etc), so we went to work on fixing it up. In the process, we learned a tremendous amount. In the end, we sold it for a profit and it was only on the market for a few days! It was so gratifying to see the transformation and know that someone else could appreciate the value that I brought to the home.

We moved to NM, built a house, and had our first baby boy. Life seems like it keeps moving faster and faster, but in this political climate, I felt that my families financial future was not certain.

I decided it was time to get involved in real estate. I met with my uncle in Utah who owns 15 units. I wanted to learn from his mistakes. He taught me that being a landlord does not have to be a headache and that while there is some risk involved in RE, you can minimize it. He looked at my finances and we came up with a game plan.

Today, I am under contract on a REO 4 bedroom, 2 bath, home that will be my first rental.

I lurked for a long time on this website. Through reading the bigger pockets blogs, listening to the podcast and reading the forum I have been able to learn from your experience and gain the confidence to do my first deal. Thanks again for taking time to post, without you my learning curve would be much steeper.