I am a new member of Bigger Pockets, and it's a pleasure to meet everyone! 

I am 33yrs old, and I've been living in San Francisco for the past 8 years. My primary goal is to become financially free at 37, and I know I can do this through investing and discipline! The BRRR strategy resonated with me. I would ideally apply that strategy to single-family homes to start, then transition to multi-family properties. My markets of focus are San Francisco / Bay Area, Cleveland, Saint Louis, Reno, and Indianapolis.

I work in tech, and I love it, but real estate has always peeked my interest, so finding out about BP has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. From this community, I heard about "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and read this book about six times while on paternity leave :). It has completely changed the way I view the world.  

The past couple of months I've been trying to learn as much as I can about the real estate industry. Bigger Pockets forms, blogs, books, and podcasts have been my primary source of information, and I've enjoyed every minute of it while learning a lot. From my research, I have narrowed down what markets, type of property and strategy I want to pursue. (As I mentioned above.)

I am very excited to meet everyone and to learn from your experiences. I'm extremely curious to learn about what works, what doesn't and how to consistently be successful. I can't wait to get to meet all of you! Now I'm at the point where I'm ready (aka as ready as I'll ever be) to get started. 

@Adam Barlow Welcome to the BP family! You've come to the right place to learn about RE investing.  As you mentioned it has tons of resources and even more great people to connect and speak about real estate! 

Based on your summary, I wanted to see - why do you want to start with buying single families?! If you already made up your mind that multi-family is a better alternative for you (and me:) ), why spending time and money on the investments that you plan to transition from anyway?! Start with multi-family. Maybe get a smaller one and live in one unit and rent the others. Get FHA financing for it.

Best!

@Adam Barlow Welcome to Bigger Pockets! I'm just starting out in real estate myself, and I also live in the San Fransisco Bay Area. I'm planning to start investing in St. Louis in single family homes. Also like you, I am planning to eventually move into small multi-family properties. Your reasons may be different, but I'm planning to start with SFH because the downpayment money I have saved is enough for a SFH but probably not quite enough for a duplex. I can't easily house-hack from here because even the smallest of multi-family properties in the Bay Area are quite expensive and the price-to-rent ratio is way too high to make it a good long-term investment (at least from what I've seen).

Good luck as you get started. We're probably in about the same boat in terms of experience, but if you decide to go forward with investing in St. Louis, I'd be happy to share what I've learned so far.

Hi Michelle, hi Adam,

I came to St. Louis via LA to invest in SFH and MFHs using the BRRR strategy two years ago and it is going well so far. I have 15 units right now and am still looking to grow. I have in the meantime gotten my realtor's license (to allow me access to the MLS, to write my own offers and see comps). Let me know if I can assist you with local area advice or perhaps even write up some offers for you... !

By the way - Saint Louis is a quirky little town, well worth a visit if you can manage. 

Hi Astrid & Michelle,

What area of STL do you buy houses in?

Welcome Adam!

Hello @Adam Barlow !!

Welcome to BiggerPockets!

You’ve taken a great first step in real estate investment. Congratulations and I wish you all the best.

You are not alone in your real estate ambition.

@Rob Hood I'm just starting out, and I haven't bought my first property yet. I'm primarily looking in South City, though.

Originally posted by @Adam Barlow :

I am a new member of Bigger Pockets, and it's a pleasure to meet everyone! 

I am 33yrs old, and I've been living in San Francisco for the past 8 years. My primary goal is to become financially free at 37, and I know I can do this through investing and discipline! The BRRR strategy resonated with me. I would ideally apply that strategy to single-family homes to start, then transition to multi-family properties. My markets of focus are San Francisco / Bay Area, Cleveland, Saint Louis, Reno, and Indianapolis.

I work in tech, and I love it, but real estate has always peeked my interest, so finding out about BP has been one of the best things to ever happen to me. From this community, I heard about "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and read this book about six times while on paternity leave :). It has completely changed the way I view the world.  

The past couple of months I've been trying to learn as much as I can about the real estate industry. Bigger Pockets forms, blogs, books, and podcasts have been my primary source of information, and I've enjoyed every minute of it while learning a lot. From my research, I have narrowed down what markets, type of property and strategy I want to pursue. (As I mentioned above.)

I am very excited to meet everyone and to learn from your experiences. I'm extremely curious to learn about what works, what doesn't and how to consistently be successful. I can't wait to get to meet all of you! Now I'm at the point where I'm ready (aka as ready as I'll ever be) to get started. 

 Welcome to the site Adam.