Greenest of the Green Newbie in NYC

[Emily Hsieh]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Emily Hsieh (last name is pronounced "Shay"), and I'm a total newbie to real estate. I live in NYC and worked in media/publishing for 12 years. Last year I quit my job and took some time to travel and pursue a passion of mine, scuba diving, in Fiji and Indonesia. Now I'm back in the city and found BP by way of Paula Pant's blog Afford Anything. Paula's story is amazing and she's my hero! My longterm goal is to create multiple streams of income (and be location independent) and hope RE can be one of those streams. I was so burnt out from the corporate world and never want to return.

I'm in the middle of reading the BP beginner's guide and have listened to a few podcasts so far, which have been really great. I don't know what niche I want to pursue yet, I just want to learn as much as possible and get into investing at some point.

Ideally, it would be great if I could find a learn/earn situation from an investor who needs help and wouldn't mind teaching me the ropes. What I can offer - I have print and digital marketing/advertising experience, am resourceful, and am not above doing grunt work. I also helped a sales rep manage her rental listings for the last few months (currently on hold because she had a family emergency out of state that she is now dealing with). I know NYC is a challenging and unique market - so if anyone can give me some input on whether it's even realistic to hope that an investor would take on someone with no experience (but lots of motivation), that would be appreciated. Or what I'd need to do to get to the point where someone would consider me. Or if it's more realistic to try to work with someone outside the NYC market.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies and looking forward to learning and networking here on BP!

Emily