First time home buyer in Northern Virginia

[Mark Taggart-Perez]

Hello BP community!

My name is Mark. I am 31 years old. I'm a firefighter in Northern Virginia. I am single with no kids. My base income is ~$95k per year. With overtime, I grossed $139.5k in 2024. I am currently renting an apartment with a roommate. My half of the monthly rent is around $1300 with utilities. I have ZERO debts. I have a retirement 457 account with $120k (split amongst Roth and Traditional). I also have $102k in a money market account that currently earns about 4.5%. I've got about 7k in an emergency savings account.

I am in the process of getting several mortgage pre-approvals to compare fees and get an idea of how much home I can realistically afford.

I have yet to find a buyer's agent/investor to help me identify potential homes but will start on that shortly.

Ideally, I would like to buy a single family home. The areas I'm looking are Loudoun County, VA, Charlestown/Harpers Ferry, WV, and Frederick, MD.

My ultimate goal is to live in it until I can buy a second property and then backfill my first property with a tenant. Rinse and repeat.

It's my first time going through the entire home buying process and it's all a bit overwhelming and daunting. I have a few questions.

1. How do I go about finding the best banks or companies to get pre-approvals and is it worthwhile to get multiple?

2.(a) Is it okay to be looking at 3 different areas VA, MD, WV? Or should I really narrow it down to one?

2.(b) Is it okay to talk to multiple realtors at the same time (I'm thinking it would be better to have a separate realtor with lots of market knowledge and experience in each of the mentioned locations) or should I only plan to use one?

3.(c) Do any of you have some specific market considerations I should take into account OR that I should be researching (high taxes, pertinent rent laws, etc.)?

3. My money market funds are dedicated to go towards a down payment, closing costs, etc. How do I determine how much of a down payment I should make (keeping my goal of buying more properties in mind)?

4. Lastly, what other considerations or resources can you think of that will help me understand the process and feel more comfortable as a first time home buyer?

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my post!