Dear Bigger Pockets Community, 

Thank you! Thank you all very much for all the help and support. Thank you for all the blog posts, forum threads and all the great people I met at the meetups. 

After years of researching real estate investing, I finally did it! I pulled the trigger and bought my first property. 

The feeling is great! I went from being on the sidelines to actually being a real estate investor. 

The story:

I met my JV partner at a local real estate meetup in April 2015. He had put a property under contract in Stratford, CT for $67,000. He found a hard money lender who was offering to lend funds for the purchase and rehab as long as the borrower could bring $30,000 to the deal. My JV partner had some of the funds but not all.

We discussed the details of the deal at the meetup and I liked what I heard. More importantly, I found my future JV partner very trustworthy.

Two days later I went to see the property for myself. 

It is a single family home, 1100 SF, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath that needed about $30k in repairs. Appraiser stated that the after repair value of the home was $185k. My thoughts were that there seemed to be enough room in this deal that even with me making newbie mistakes, I would not lose my pants. 

My partner also had a local mentor who recommended us a contractor who is very experienced in investor rehabs. We are in week 4 of the rehab process and things are going well and staying within budget. I have been blogging about the experience (link in my signature).

This community, website and forum gave me the base knowledge to have enough confidence to move forward and do my first deal. 

I am so inspired to explore this path of real estate investments and am actively looking for my next transaction. 

I would be happy to answer any and all questions you all may have.

With my deepest gratitude, Ben

@Ben Rutkevitz : Great going Ben!!! Its all about taking action. Wish you tons of luck with the rehab! Very nice looking website too... 

That's great! congrats!  I cant wait to see your "I made $xxxxx" post!!  

Thank you Mark and Pancham! 

@Pancham Gupta

@Mark Redmann

Very excited to make that I made money post!!

This is a great way of documenting your experience. Thank you for sharing.

Great story, @Ben Rutkevitz ! Good luck!

That's awesome @Ben Rutkevitz .  It looks and sounds like it's coming along great.  And I'll second that your awesome looks very nice.

Looks like you got a great deal! Very inspiring to see something like this going on nearby. Looking forward to following your progress, and wishing you great success!

Originally posted by @Ben Rutkevitz :

Dear Bigger Pockets Community, 

I went from being on the sidelines to actually being a real estate investor. 

The story:

I met my JV partner at a local real estate meetup in April 2015. He had put a property under contract in Stratford, CT for $67,000. He found a hard money lender who was offering to lend funds for the purchase and rehab as long as the borrower could bring $30,000 to the deal. My JV partner had some of the funds but not all.

We discussed the details of the deal at the meetup and I liked what I heard. More importantly, I found my future JV partner very trustworthy.

Two days later I went to see the property for myself. 

It is a single family home, 1100 SF, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath that needed about $30k in repairs. Appraiser stated that the after repair value of the home was $185k. My thoughts were that there seemed to be enough room in this deal that even with me making newbie mistakes, I would not lose my pants. 

My partner also had a local mentor who recommended us a contractor who is very experienced in investor rehabs. We are in week 4 of the rehab process and things are going well and staying within budget. I have been blogging about the experience (link in my signature).

This community, website and forum gave me the base knowledge to have enough confidence to move forward and do my first deal.

--------------------------------------------------------------Ben  I think this is the PERFECT way for someone should/could start their Real Estate career 

You don't need much money.  You have a partner with real Estate know how, that is leading the way and teaching you.

Your web site where you are documenting your Diary of this purchase is so professional that I m sure this will ability will help you in your real estate career.  I would however put this diary on  BP in addition to where you have it.  BP loves  documentation of Rehabbing and the financial end results.

You should write a tutorial on how to get started the "BEN WAY"  It will help people that are just waiting in the wings for a time that is never right for them to start.  Look how long it took you to get there?

Like you said you can not lose here

It's better then a $40,000 Geru course

Good Luck and keep us updated!!

thank you @barbara 

@Barbara G. , where on BP would I post about the ongoing progress?

Just Google  "Bigger Pockets  discussion"

Its right there in "starting Out" 

@Barbara G.

I took your advice and started a forum on the progress of the property, http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/522/topics/212763-stratford-ct---single-family-home---ben-rutkevitz

@Ben Rutkevitz Congratulations! I know the feeling of making the "Real"step into doing what you need to for full success, I felt this way doing my Art website and actually making my 1st sale. It wasn't much about the money but the final step of completed your true dream come true... Onward to more learning & success to you!

@Ben Rutkevitz congrats and good luck!!

Ben, curious to know how things are going for you. Are you still investing? Is your contractor really good? Let us know. I'm actually searching for a good contractor myself.