Newbie from Castle Rock, Colorado.

[Gerard J.]

Just dropping a quick hello to everyone and introduce myself. I'm a newbie trying to get started in investing in RE, primarily buy,hold, rent.

My family and I moved to CO from California this past July 2017. When my company told us we were moving it was a pretty easy decision. Other than the 10% raise I was offered, CO is still a lower COL state compared to California. So the decision was pretty easy for us financially speaking. When we moved, we decided wife was gonna stay home with the four boys - at least until the 2yr old starts school. That does cut our income substantially, not to mention other benefits like retirement. So I started thinking about options how we can offset the lack of contribution to my wife's retirement plan. And I got to thinking about investing again. I was not thinking about real estate for a long time because our last investment, Austin,TX which we sold back in 2008, left a bad taste in our mouths. I happen to be looking on zillow and got curious and looked up our old duplex and see how it's doing. I was surprised to find that it is now worth approximately $256K - we bought it for $150K in 2007. We were newbies then, still newbies now. But I feel that experience will help us get started again and a little bit wiser than the first time. 

Hoping to meet some good people to connect with here and looking forward to interacting with everyone.