New Member from New York

[Peter Stellato]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to introduce myself to the BP community.

I have not yet begun my REI journey yet but I have known this was on my path since I was in college. I intend to invest in buy & hold rental multi-families and mixed-use properties with the goal of financial independence. My biggest challenge is that I live in NYC and the entire metropolitan area is very expensive. As a result I have been keenly interested in upstate New York as a potential area to invest (Hudson Valley and Albany regions). I'd also be interested in New Jersey and Philadelphia if the deals are right!

By trade I am a professional engineer (mechanical) who works on mainly commercial buildings for larger developers. Residences are not my expertise but feel free to ask me for any technical advice regarding buildings (not structural though!). My partner and I run a small engineering firm and he is also very interested in REI. It is both our goals to eventually transition from full-time engineering to full-time real estate holders/investors.

I've been following BP for about a year now and finally wanted to dip my feet in the water.  Looking forward to interacting with others who are involved in real estate!

-Pete

[Stephanie Medellin]

Hi Peter - I'm in the Capital Region (Schenectady, 15-20 minutes outside of Albany).  Schenectady's downtown has already been revitalized and many of the remaining buildings are being redeveloped right now.  Schenectady is the home of GE and also has an Amtrak station that goes to the city.  They are also building a casino development on the Mohawk River waterfront.  I've renovated buildings in Albany but prefer Schenectady mainly for the smaller town feel.  There are still lots of great opportunities here.  It might be a bit harder from a management perspective because they have a rental certificate ordinance here.  Not 100% sure, but I think Albany might have something similar.