All Forum Posts by: Garrett Pearson

Hi Yasmine,

I new also so I definitely understand. Have you looked up in Real Estate investment meetup groups in your area or the local REIA? I have looked at a few but only been to one meeting. I suggest because you mention you are looking for someone to teach a newbie. I am looking for someone as well but my plan and you may want to consider it. If you can find anyone locally because of the competitive of the business, I am going to travel out of the area maybe even 2 hours away to meet with someone who will take the time to talk with me. Personally, I don't really have to have my hand held so if I only got a chance to do a face to face meeting every now and then and other times, follow up via email, text, skype or phone that would suffice.

Just a little food for thought,

Anyway, I wish you all the best and I plan to rent one of your vacation homes for the winter in the next year or so. I have to give you time to get things together  :)

Hi Dan,

Welcome to BP. I am also an RE Investment virgin. I can't give you any advice on investing because I don't have firsthand experience and I can't tell you anything about your market because I never been to Seattle. One thing I can tell you as a former photographer, you do great work and even have a nice website. Oh I almost forgot to you (just kidding), the podcast are really good. I highly suggest you listen to them as well. There seems like hundreds of them. I download them on my phone and connect to aux jack in the car and listen to them every time I get in car and all the way to my destination and back. I also take really long walks so I can make more time to listen.

I wish you the best in your new venture/journey. If I ever make to Seattle, maybe you can show me around to all of properties. 

@Larry T.   Thanks for the response and confirmation. I can't answer any of the questions you asked because I was very skeptical and wanted a 2nd set of eyes to see if this the whole deal would even make sense before I traveled 2 hours away to be disappointed. 

I also love the lunch idea. I am looking to get involved in with some local REI clubs and also comb through the list on BP to find some successful investors in the area that are willing to give an hour or two of their time. I must prove the old adage wrong by making sure that there is a such thing as a free lunch.

Thanks again.

Hello. I will admit that I am as green as they come. I've never even been close enough to a deal to smell one let alone be apart of one. I am looking at two potential deals that are not posted on the MLS. I apologize for such a long post. They appear somewhat promising from what I can see but I need some help. They both are SFR which I would be interested in buying and holding. One house is 4br/2.5 ba priced at $79k and it appears to be in immaculate shape. If it was closer, I might would move in myself. The other house in 3bd/1ba priced $39.9K which according to the listing needs some TLC. Here are the down sides. The properties are located a couple of hours away in a smaller town in IL. I say smaller but their population is over 110k. The town does have about 6 colleges which brings me to the things are most concerning. The houses are in a part of town where the home prices seem pretty low. I only take Zillow with a grain of salt but according to Zillow, the prices in that zip code are 54% below the median home prices and that the number of foreclosure will most likely drive the prices down in the upcoming year. I checked the schools in the area ratings they are 1 out of a possible 10. This raises a major red flag but the saving grace is that it is very close to a university that has about 5700 students that is only able to house 2140. I was unable to find out how many students commute from outside the area. This could be a great opportunity to rent to college students. There are similar houses renting in the area on craigslist. The rents in the area for 3-4 bedrooms homes are $800-1200. I should have room to offer rent slightly less. These deals sounds risky to me but I need to make sure that it's that I have cold feet. Do you think it wise to purchase a property(ies) in a place where my only real potential tenants will be college students and especially such a small body of students? Thank you for taking time to read and/or reply.

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets community. I'm new also. It is so much experience, knowledge and wisdom here, I become a sponge so that my first deal will be both correct and profitable. Wish you all the best.

Thanks I forward to learning a lot.

Thank you all for the words of wisdom and encouragement. I am so excited to be among such great people. @Mind Jensen Great advice. I am listening to several podcasts daily and I have been fortunate enough to find and attend CREIA meeting already @Laniece Miller Hey, I attended the Chicago Real Estate Investment meeting a few weeks ago in Lisle at the Hyatt on 53. I wish you well on your decision making process. My suggestion would probably be to go for it. If you don't like, you can always get out the game. @Dmitriy Fomichenko Thanks for the reinforcement. It  feels right to be here. @Larry Fried I have not read it but I will now. Thank you. @Michael S. It appears that you are quite a distance away so it says a lot about the site for you to participate and then recommend it as well.

The subject of real estate makes my heart skip a beat. I love real estate.  When I was younger, I held a leasing and then real estate sales license but at the time, I didn't plan properly and couldn't make money fast enough to stay in the game full time. I went on to property management for several years until I had some health issues. Everything I do seems to bring me back to my passion, real estate. I am now ready to start bird dogging while gaining some experience to doing some real investing, maybe a few flips and then some buy and holds. I am also about to looking into getting my RE Broker license as well. I am excited about the talent on BP.  I'm looking to learn and make great connection here of BP.