Hello everybody, just wanted to say hi and thank all of you who contribute to this amazing nest of information. I found this website while looking to answer a few questions, and now that they have been answered I have a hundred others! LOL.

Okay, first let me start off by saying that I really had no intentions on becoming a real estate investor until about a month ago when my girlfriend and I decided that we would like to purchase a house. When we first moved out here to Idaho three years ago, the market was going crazy and literally in a matter of weeks, our loan would not buy the type of house we were looking for, which I might add, was well within reach just months before we sat down with the bank.

Well, after getting sick of living in an apartment for the past couple years, we are ready to get into a home. Now, the market has slowed considerably as I'm sure you all know, yet since the "boom" out here, houses are still a bit more than I'd like to pay.

Now, I started with this thought of how back in high school I used to pay $150 for a new pair of Jordans at the mall. They are out there at every Foot Locker and sold like they are goin' out of style. Yet, if you go online, you can often find the same pair for 60 cents on the dollar, hence I do not shop at the mall anymore. THis applies to many other material items also. And, I thought to myself, why not a house too?

I'm gonna try not to get long winded as I've been know to get a bit tangential. Here is what it comes down to:
-I'm in the market for a house
-I do not want to pay nor can I afford what we want at retail value
-I do qualify for a decent loan under a first time homebuyers program fixed at 5.2 percent for 20years.

So, I'm really looking for some advice here. After reading online for the past couple months along with reading half a dozen beginner type REIng books, I think I want to get involved persuing real estate as a means of trying to grasp some piece of mind in terms of having financial security down the road.

I'm very interested right now in wholesaling, rehab, and short sales. I was wondering how to use this one time "1st homebuyers loan" to my advantage. I dont want to look at things this way, but I figure if we are looking to buy a house anyway, why not try and chase down some foreclosures and haggle with some banks in order to get my feet wet and just see if I can find a good deal. If I do, I feel that we will live in it and rehab while I continue to network and build a buyers list. If the place wont sell, I feel we have a safety net, as we still got into a house. If it does sell, well, then maybe I'm one step closer freedom :).

Sorry guys, this got a bit wordier than I expected. I'd like to hear your thoughts of how I could possibly work some of these things out. Or, you can just tell me I'm crazy and in over my head already LOL.

Thanks!