Where to start in VA

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@E Roba I will be relocating to the area soon. Welcome to BP. I would suggest getting some cash together, raising credit score as high as possible, and investing time in acquiring knowledge before jumping into any purchase. Visualize where you want your real estate activities to be in 10 years, work backwards and write down all the actions it will take to get there. Then get to work on taking care of them 1 at a time. Consistent action, and patience will get you anywhere you want to be.Good luck, hope to connect with you once I'm in the area.

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Thank you so much, Liz. And yes I would appreciate any tips you may have to impart to a newb like myself. The sheer volume of information on this site is intimidating, to say the least. I would be grateful for any help. Please let me know more about the Capital REI monthly meet up in Fairfax. It seems like a very good start for me. Again, thank you.

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Hi @E RobaWelcome! Glad you're here. There are lots of ways to learn more and get involved in the local real estate investor community in NOVA. Bigger Pockets is great. I'd also recommend joining a local group or two... I'm a member of Capital REI, which is run by @Roger Lin, @Justin Pierce, and @John Rubino. This is a great group that meets in Fairfax City each month. Nice group with lots of good people in it. I can provide more details if you're curious. You canAlso, I'd be happy to point you in the right direction for things to think about and consider as you make a decision regarding your next steps.Please check out my profile and reach out if you think I might be able to help you. I have lots of clients in the same boat- just getting started and trying to make the best possible choices as they move forward. It's great that you're reaching out for advice. That's a VERY smart first step. :)Liz

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Hey E Roba if you shoot me an email I'll forward the evite to you. My contact is below. Talk to you soon!

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Hi Carson,Thank you for your advice. I imagined there would be a lot of competition in the area. It is overwhelming to think about what strategy to tackle but that's exactly why I am in this site. Please give me more info about the monthly meet up in Fairfax. Would love to check it out. Elohe

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Welcome to the site Elohe! It's always great seeing new members in Nova to the site. Cody has some really good tips, however the strategies he mentioned are fairly common and might not work as well in our market. There's just a lot of competition. Don't worry that you haven't figured out where to begin, sometimes the site can be overwhelming with ideas. It's smart that you've gone to investing groups, thats a great place to start. I recommend to use BP as a dictionary and learning the jargon, strategies, etc and utilizing meet ups to learn the market. Then you can merge the two and figure out a strategy that makes the most sense to you. There's a lot of meet ups around, my favorite is in Fairfax once a month. There are good ones all over though. Hope that helps, happy investing.

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Thank you very much, Cody. I can't believe this site exists sometimes. I appreciate the encouragement. Will certainly take your advice start doing whatever I can with my limited resources.

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Welcome to BiggerPockets! Get an education first and build your knowledge in the area of investing you want to be in. Save your money for marketing and start doing the things that require time an less money like driving neighborhoods looking for houses that need work. Track down the owners by going to the county websites with the suspect property address and mail the owners a letter saying you want to buy their house. This one way will get your phone ringing and there are many more activities you can do with little money that will make you big money. The great news is that you've found the best site for real estate investing FOR FREE!!! Take little action and receive little results, Take massive action and receive massive results!

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I'm moving to NOVA in June. Problem I've had with my online research and with driving around the Woodbridge, Manassas, and Occoquan areas is that the pricing is so high compared to down here so deals don't jump out at me as easily. And I've only found one boarded up property so far.

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Welcome to NoVa @E Roba Could always use a bird dog. PM me.