Glad to be here, thanks to Joshua and Brandon, all the blog posters, and podcast guests for the great information!!

Since then I've learned alot from trying to make an offer for a dump of a place towards rebuilding it, and am currently looking at other strategies and planning on doing some blogging about it soon.I've been considering renovations and/or multifamilies in the Seattle core even though the ROI is so poor just so I wouldn't have to keep paying rent of ~18k/yr.

I also have a blogpost regarding this if you like to check it out:  http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/5535/blog_posts...Hope to see you around the forums!

Since joining BP I have read so many blogs and listened to many wonderful podcast's that have been helpful.

Make sure to listen to all the BP podcasts, read the articles on the main blog and be active in these forums to learn a ton very quickly about any topic in real estate you want to know more about.This is also a great place to meet people that can be assets to your business.

Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books for this or you can learn by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum.

Podcasts, blog articles, and posting.

Johnson (Gary), I recently joined BiggerPockets after hearing other investors discuss the site and its benefits (for some time now), and after reading a few blogs of interest.My focus is continuing to build my buy & hold properties, mostly in DFW, TX area, but am looking at other areas, mostly in FL, TN, TX, IN & CA.

I wrote a blog post on BP about the risks/benefit trade-off on how leveraged you are over economic cycles, with some thoughts, considerations, and questions..http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/4579/blog_posts/32645-if-ca-h-is-king-then-leverage-is-god---loans-cash-roe-roi-and-risk

To be honest I'd simply stick with the list from the blog: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/14/best-real-estate-books/see you around the site!