Hi Everybody!
My name is Karen Saxon. I live in Little Rock, AR, with my husband, Ben. He and I were both going to post our introductions today but then we thought that might be like showing up at the Bigger Pockets Gym in matching jogging suits. So, this introduction is for both of us. My grandpa was a good hardworking man, but also a bit of a slumlord (whose tenants would flush whole rolls of toilet paper down the toilets) so I never found the idea of owning rental properties very appealing. However, about 6 years ago (before I met my husband), I invested some savings into a decent little rent house in a solid neighborhood and found that it was a much better return on my money than sitting in a savings account. Since then, we got engaged, purchased another SFH fixer upper, got married, renovated the SFH together, turned it over to a property manager, and have had successful income streams with both to date. Then recently, my husband and I successfully flipped an SFH. I am more the artsy dreamer type who finds a distressed property and dreams of how beautiful we can make it. But my husband is a spreadsheet BEAST. He loves spreadsheets almost more than he loves me (and he dreams sexy dreams about spreadsheets). Seriously though, he is the no-BS numbers guy and if the numbers don't add up, my cotton candy dreams get the chopping block. Together we are an excellent team.
Although Ben and I are just now posting a profile on Bigger Pockets, he and I feel like we are already part of the BP family because we spend our free time listening to Bigger Pockets podcasts and reading REI books. He's a professional instructional designer in the educational content and technology industry (working from home), and I am a professional musician/singer/songwriter, but we LOVE REI. I have a courageous young daughter who is on her way to becoming a fierce business woman and is currently looking for her first deal, so I'm a proud mom. These MFR cats on the BP Podcast have recently lit Ben and me on fire and we are turning our attention to multifamily investment properties either here in Little Rock or in other markets in the U.S. We want to network with other multifamily investors, learn as much as possible, build a team, and invest in our first MFR soon. We are open to flipping another SFH on the side if a deal comes along, but our main focus is MFR. Ben and I are excited to be on BP and we look forward to connecting with the BP community.
Karen