New member from Winston-Salem NC

[Andrew Ayers]

Good afternoon everyone, and glad to be here.

I'm brand new to this forum, but hoping to fit in and learn from everyone here soon.  My name is Andrew, and my wife and I moved to the Winston Salem area in February very much hoping that we liked it.  Well, I can say after just a few short months we know this is going to be our forever home, so I'm looking forward to settling in.  We are originally from the Pittsburgh area, but we have lived all over the country looking for home.  Fortunately, this gave us a lot of exposure to different real estate markets.

Right now we are currently self employed as online resellers, and have been doing that since 2013.  We have been full time at it for about 2 years now.  We both enjoy it greatly, but we are looking to invest in something more permanent.  We have always dreamed of owning a real estate empire combining a rehab/flip operation and long term rental holds.

We have never invested in real estate before, but we have owned two homes.  One we sold successfully, and one was lost to foreclosure due to some family crises.  

Basically I am here to learn from anyone and everyone I can.  I'm actually fairly confident in being able to find the deals, as that's basically what I do for a living.  It all comes down to numbers and excel doesn't lie.  However, I'm curious to learn the smartest ways to get financed, especially with a foreclosure (though older) on our name.  

The other specific question I would love to hear thoughts on, is that we currently rent right now.  We plan to buy a personal home in the next 12 months.  Does it make more sense to wait until we get our personal home to start, or can we start on investing before we buy a home?  Curious on anyone's thoughts who is willing to share.

Thank you all, and see you around the forum