Native Texan living in NoVA

[Jonathan Carden]

Greetings!

A little bit about myself:

My name is Jonathan, I'm 25-years old, living in the Northern Virginia / D.C. area, and married with a baby (boy) on the way. I currently work as director-level major gifts fundraiser for a non-profit here, but am hoping to parlay some of my skills to a career in real estate.

My mother has worked as a real estate agent for a majority of my life (in TX), even starting her own company / brokerage six years ago, so I've grown up on the fringes of the real estate community. Having built up a decent-sized nest egg, I have been ingesting as much real estate knowledge as possible over the past six months, with my eye on either buying a home in the NoVA-area to live in or a home in TX to rent.

I've also thought about becoming a realtor here on the East Coast, but it would be a huge step back in terms of security and income for the first few years. I have a great job now, especially for my relative youth, but -- as I mentioned above -- I want to use my personal skills to generate income commiserate with my production, as opposed to generating millions in return for a 3% raise each year.

The more I read, the more I realize how little I know, but I'm looking forward to closing the knowledge gap over the upcoming months (thanks in no small part to BP).

I'll take all the advice I can get, so please feel free to share any tips you may have for someone in my position.