Hello,

My name is Steve and my wife, Melissa, and I are just beginning in real estate investing. While she and I both have pretty good jobs, the thought of spending the next 20+ years till retirement in those jobs has started to become really depressing. So, we're looking into investing in real estate as a way to hopefully shorten the time till we can be free of the 9 to 5 jobs. Our long term goal is to invest in income producing properties, while our shorter term strategy is to look for a few flippable properties to generate some additional capital to support the longer term goal.

So far, we've spent the last couple of months researching the business and looking for our first deal. We've hooked up with a real estate agent who does a lot of investment properties and talked with two finance people who also do a lot of work in the investment arena. Now we just have to find that first property.

I have also spent time lurking on the forums here for the last few weeks and have found an awesome amount of information and advice here. My thanks to the experienced investors that are willing to spend the time and offer some of that hard won experience to those of us new to the field.

I am interested in finding an REI group to join in the Southeastern Pennsylvania area. If anyone knows of a good one, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks.

Steve.