New Santa Monica Investor

[Steve Hoghe]

Hi there Bigger Pockets! I'd like to introduce myself as a new investor from Santa Monica. I'm 31 and have been a lifelong corporate monkey as an accountant and auditor. I always wanted to "get into" real estate, but never took the initiative to figure out what that meant or how to do it. A year ago I moved from Boston to SoCal and that changed my whole mindset in terms of how easy it can be to affect major changes in your life if you really want to. During my most recent foray into switching careers I stumbled upon BP. I've spent the last month and half going through the wealth of information on this site, listening to the podcasts, trying to educate myself about real estate investing, and the industry as a whole, as best I can.

Now that I have a base knowledge of the various businesses and players within the real estate industry - and my wonderful girlfriend is willing to support my endeavours - I'm ready to commit and am seeking to make inroads. Concurrent with investing myself, I'm seeking to start a career in the industry because I want gain more hands on knowledge in some capacity and quite frankly I love thinking and talking about real estate would love to get paid to do so. Specifically, I am exploring three paths:

1. Go the more corporate route and try and find an analyst position with an asset manager/developer/RE services firm. I have not had much luck with this thus far, given my lack of experience.

2. Work towards becoming a property manager. I don't love the fact that I have to become a licensed broker in order to work as a property manager, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes if this is the path I decided to go down.

3. Work directly with other investors. Specifically, I would love to work with rehabbers. My dad turned the house I grew up in from a 3 unit apartment into a 5 bedroom house and I've always been fascinated with the building side of the business. So any rehabbers out there looking for an eager apprentice, I'm all yours!

I apologize for the lengthy introduction, I didn't realize how the thoughts would start flowing once I started typing. I'll end with saying I'm eager to get out and start meeting people in the area. I see that there is a large SoCal contingent here on BP and look forward to meeting some of you in the near future!

 -Steve