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.

[Ann Bellamy]

Welcome to BP, Lakeisha,

"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."

That's because they make a lot of money selling courses. They don't have to do actual deals, they create the course once, and then it keeps generating cash time after time. Similar to getting you to increase your credit lines when you go to a boot camp. It is ostensibly so you have more credit available to buy property, but it is actually so your credit line is available when they sell you the 25,000 mentorship program.

Suggest you go to the Learn tab above, read the Beginners Guide, listen to the Podcasts, read the blogs and articles, and do searches on the Forums and read about topics that interest you. It will keep you reading and listening for months, and you will have specific questions you need answered. It's all free. Then if you still want a course, you'll be an educated consumer.