I was introduced to REIA by a few friends when I lived in Richmond, VA, and found those meetings incredibly useful.

Reading a couple books, going to Invest Gainesville REI meetings, and doing as much consumption of bigger pockets as possible has been my curriculum.

I just checked the Zestimate for our old house in Modesto (standard disclaimers about Zestimates apply...) - it's still barely more than half of what we paid for it in 2004, and less than half of what it appraised for in 2006...So, it's very possible to lose money in Northern CA if you buy at the wrong time, like we did.

Welcome to BiggerPockets, there are a fair number of us active in these parts.The best way to get started is to meet up with us, one week from today at Tiger Jacks.

Have you looked up the local REIA meetings yet?

Great to have you here @Rich Lopes, you can find nearby investors by connecting here https://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

I've been a student of real estate for years and have recently returned from having lived in Japan for nearly 20 years to finally try my hand in the exciting Las Vegas market.I'm hoping to meet all kinds of individuals here and hopefully lend assistance to others who share similar goals to myself.Cheers

If the property meets my criteria then I will keep it, flip or rent.

If you haven't already discovered, this is a great place for information and to meet people who are very open to help!

I was just using a standard 30 year conventional mortgage to analyze the expenses but would like to find a way to analyze it with hard money.