New Member - DC/Maryland/Virginia area

[Lakeisha Alston]

Hello all, my name is Lakeisha, and I relocated to the DC area about a year and a half ago from Boston, MA. I have a pretty good job that pays well, and life in general is good. I bought my first home last year, and the process went really well. Of course I had a great Realtor and worked with a great Lender. I am looking to make my life even better, and I’ve always had an interest in real-estate; so I thought, why not use real-estate as a means to continue improving my quality of life?

In October, I began attending a monthly real-estate investment meeting in the Baltimore area. Although I have only attended two meetings, I have learned a lot and made some great connections. However, I do not want my knowledge limited to just one source which is why I joined this forum. In addition, I will begin taking real-estate courses to learn more about real-estate in general. Every investor I have spoken with or heard through a webinar, etc. stressed the benefits of taking real-estate courses, even if you do not plan on becoming an actual Realtor. Recently, I received some information about a wholesaling course, so once I complete the real-estate course work, I will sign up to take the real-estate wholesale course as well. I try to read as much as I can about real-estate investment because my goal is to arm myself with as much information as possible about real-estate and real-estate investment.

The District of Columbia as well as some of the surrounding counties are hot markets, and I am eager to jump into real-estate investment. I am interested in wholesaling as well as buy and hold properties to produce additional streams of income. In today’s world I think it is extremely important to create multiple streams of income and not rely on one source of income alone. Again, I have a good job that pays well, but I would love to be able to use real-estate as a means to replace that income.

I do apologize for the long introduction, but if you have any advice or tools you would like to share with me or feel would be beneficial to me, I would be more than grateful for the information. Also, if there is a way I could gain hands-on experience I would be open to that as well. At the end of the day, I am seeking as much knowledge as possible to be a great and trustworthy real-estate investor.

Thanks in advance for any advice, etc. provided by this community.