As you participate on the site you will be surprise how much you do know and how fast you are adding to what you know.Bigger Pockets has various resources: ebooks, blogs, forums, podcasts, webinars, colleagues, keyword alerts, an awards system, a learn section, informative people in many fields of real estate, and more.Consider spending 30 minutes for 30 consecutive days on Bigger Pockets.

It's great to see that you're making the jump from lurking around the forums to actively participating.

So thank you all in advance for your participation to the site that I am sure to learn from.Thank you

I figured I should post a little and participate in the community, so here I am!

Participating in the discussion and getting involved, will almost certainly lead to very positive and surprising results!

But I have learned more participating in the discussions than simply reading everything.

Great to make the transition from "lurker" to participant, isn't it?

Oh, and BP has been a big eye opener as I already stated.I look forward to participating on the forum, and if you are in the Cincinnati area give me a shout!

I finally decided to sign up and start participating in the discussions.I'm from Bayside, NY which is located in the borough of Queens in New York City. 

As others have said, educate and network.Only invest with people you know, like and trust.Diversify the $500k into several deals to generate separate income streams.If this $500k will allow you to reach accredited investor status, you will be able to participate in larger multi-family syndication deals as a limited partner with solid operators.