Hello from Vancouver Canada
Hello Everyone!
My name is Mike and I'm from Vancouver, BC. I'm a designer, therapist and wholesaler(retail store items).
I've done a lot of the Guru stuff in the past. We usually get a troop of speakers up here, now more than ever. I started with Russ Whitney Canada (now Kiyosaki owned) in 2001. Did all the bootcamps and blah blah blah. I used the information to garner a purchase of a split property (4 residential, 2 commercial) with absolutely no money by asking the owner for a VTB. It was a beautifully constructed deal. Alas, the accountant turned out to be a little shifty and the deal fell through. Not really what you want to feel right out of the gate.
All was not lost, I took a lot of the information that I had learned and started a retail and wholesale business, which was successful for a number of years.
Not knowing how to get back into real estate, a colleague told me about a number of free seminars coming to town in 2013. I went to those and signed up for the 1st weekend classes at $197 a pop. One was Steve Martel, the other Fortune Builders. Steve Martel was great, lots of info but mentor ship was around$50k. Fortune Builders, wow there were a lot of people there, around 400. Mentorship $20 - 50k. Having already gone through the Russ Whitney (ahem) program, I didn't sign up for these.
Fast forward, I came across Bigger Pockets via a random search and ... well ... wow. I watched Brandon's webinar and signed up. Since then I've listened to all the podcasts at least a few times and gone through a number of the book suggestions.
I've partnered up with a few people met through Chad Chiniquy (another guru). (Same deal high on pitch, low on info, but at least I got to make some connections). We're planning on staring in our backyard. Since Vancouver is ridiculously overpriced, we've decided to venture into USA, starting with the Bellingham, Seattle, Washington area, starting with flips and then moving on to a few holds. Probably 1 hold for every 4 flips. We'll see how that turns out.
There is so much information here, and so much support I'm sure it will be great.
Thank you everyone for reading this, and if you can assist, or I can assist you in anyway, feel free to holler.