All Forum Posts by: Emily Hsieh

I opened a Prosper account last June and have invested $5k so far to see how it does with the minimum $25 amount per note. I put a bunch of filters in place to hopefully create a higher ROI, and so far have been happy with my returns/experience, but my portfolio is still "unseasoned" (Prosper defines a seasoned note as one that is at least 10 mos old as most defaults, if they occur, generally happen within the first 10 mos). It is unsecured debt as everyone has mentioned, but I had my eye on it for a few years and finally decided to give it a shot after listening to Dave Van Horn's podcast about RE notes, which I would eventually like to get into. He mentioned investing in Lending Club and said that p2p lending is a good way to get started learning about notes.

@Micki M.  Awesome, good to know. Thanks!

@Micki M.  Congrats - I'm a newbie trying to learn as much as I can about notes myself (also looking for a way to invest that doesn't involve tenants and plumbing). Found the podcast with Dave very interesting too and am thinking about taking a course from PPR. Did you take any of their courses?

Unfortunately I'll be out of town that day, I can't be there.

I plan to come!

I plan to come! Thanks for organizing Darren. Will be my first meetup.

Thanks for the warm welcome guys!

@Paul Timmins - will check out the materials you recommended, appreciate it.

Hi Everyone,

My name is Emily Hsieh (last name is pronounced "Shay"), and I'm a total newbie to real estate. I live in NYC and worked in media/publishing for 12 years. Last year I quit my job and took some time to travel and pursue a passion of mine, scuba diving, in Fiji and Indonesia. Now I'm back in the city and found BP by way of Paula Pant's blog Afford Anything. Paula's story is amazing and she's my hero! My longterm goal is to create multiple streams of income (and be location independent) and hope RE can be one of those streams. I was so burnt out from the corporate world and never want to return.

I'm in the middle of reading the BP beginner's guide and have listened to a few podcasts so far, which have been really great. I don't know what niche I want to pursue yet, I just want to learn as much as possible and get into investing at some point.

Ideally, it would be great if I could find a learn/earn situation from an investor who needs help and wouldn't mind teaching me the ropes. What I can offer - I have print and digital marketing/advertising experience, am resourceful, and am not above doing grunt work. I also helped a sales rep manage her rental listings for the last few months (currently on hold because she had a family emergency out of state that she is now dealing with). I know NYC is a challenging and unique market - so if anyone can give me some input on whether it's even realistic to hope that an investor would take on someone with no experience (but lots of motivation), that would be appreciated. Or what I'd need to do to get to the point where someone would consider me. Or if it's more realistic to try to work with someone outside the NYC market.

Thanks in advance to anyone who replies and looking forward to learning and networking here on BP!

Emily