New guy from Raleigh / Durham NC area.

[Dante Nava]

Hi y'all, my name is Dante Nava. I'm pretty new to the real estate investing arena. I've seen my parents make money off of real estate but they've never "gotten serious" about it, I have also owned a house and had it foreclosed on several years back.

I have been learning a TON on here, participating in the forums a bit, and working my way through the podcasts. I'm also in the process of reading Danny Johnson's book (which is awesome for getting you used to looking at deal after deal and what you should be looking for). That being said, the route I've chose for my business is to do Wholesaling so that I can learn to find deals, then in a year or so move into flipping houses so that then a year or so after that I can start working on more of a buy and hold strategy.

So for now, I'm looking to network and learn as much as I can. On that note if you are a buyer in the area and have a minute or two, please let me know what you're looking for so that I can start knowing where to direct deals as I find them.

I am taking a short break to put this introduction together while I'm working on my buying website. Hope you're all having fun!

-Dante

[Liam Goble]

@Dante Nava Welcome to BP. I see a ton of people from your area in NC. It shouldn't be hard to find buyers/sellers in your area.

I would consider revising your strategy slightly: I would start with the wholesaling but then move to buy-and-hold, rather than flips. I'm a contractor and flips can be tricky unless you have your processes, contractors and models/projections down pat.

By moving from wholesaling to buy-and-hold, or better yet, fix-and-holds, you would get a sense of the cost to fix properties, you would start building your flip team all while your residents/tenants are paying for your mortgage and part of your education.

That's the path that I've taken with my business. The first two properties I purchased are fix-and-holds. It's significantly helped me determine how long improvements should take (ie: does it really take 16 hours to change a toilet?) as well as learning what the local markets will bear for improvements.

I started my first flip this week. My contractor is a friend of mine, but he is relatively new to managing jobs (he used to work for my company as a laborer). We chatted about the flip last night, and he told me that he thinks he can 'gut a room in one day and put it all back together (electrical, drywall, trim) in one day (!).

I've personally gutted entire rooms and put them back together. Even with a helper, I know there is no possible way to flip an entire room in 16 hours. Without my personal experience, I might be inclined to believe him.