Awesome!!

Wow! So many good things are starting to come together.

Ok, first thing...if you ever go on a cruise, go on a Celebrity cruise. We were on the newest ship, the Solstice. What an experience. The one downside to being on this ship, according to experienced cruisers we were with, is now we are spoiled. This ship is so much nicer and the food and service so much better than other lines that we will be disappointed with a cruise on any other line. And seeing the other ships in ports we went to, I would have to agree that our stateroom would not be as nice for the same level of room. Most of the staterooms on Solstice have verandas, while nearly all of the other ships we saw had very few. Need to have that outside access.

The purpose of the cruise was not merely for a vacation, it was primarily a chance to mastermind with other real estate investors. There were about 20 other investors within our group from across the US, so the ideas and future opportunities presented were well worth the cost of the trip...plus the weather was waaaay nicer than in Pittsburgh.

Mark Evans and Ed Zimbardi's group (my group) and Jim Toner's group (from Pittsburgh, funny) basically combined to mastermind about the business, the current market, other opportunities, etc, so it was good to see what goes on in other parts of the country and get some ideas about how to approach opportunities in the future.

I made a bunch of new contacts and a partner to do deals in Atlanta. They call it Hotlanta in the summer, but that could be used to describe the real estate market down there as well. With all of the foreclosures that have hit that area, the number of below market deals is mind-boggling. Pittsburgh is a really good market nearly all the time, but the deals in Atlanta are so good right now that I hooked up with a JV partner and a couple of agents and will look to do deals down there as much as possible. If you have an interest in Atlanta, feel free to let me know.

Finally, the property I got a lead on just before leaving for the trip is still available and should be a really good deal to pick up. Unfortunately there is no access to the house until Sunday, so I am slowed down on it anyway. Oh well.
Better late than never :)