New investor in Washington, DC

[James Z.]

Hi all, my name is James. My start in real estate investing is complicated, but I will try to keep it succinct.

I'm a young professional, and I've done very well in my field. Unfortunately, I've also come to the realization that I detest the career path I chose and that it will not be able provide me with the financial comfort or stability to live my life or provide for my family how I would like to.

This lead me to partner up with my father, a construction executive with some innate knowledge about real estate, on a real estate investing venture. I was in more of an assistant role: checking out properties, filtering out the ones that didn't match our plan, and advising him on the city proper, since his experience was more in the suburbs. It went well, he bought two properties, one of which I invested most of my money in.

We began to see great returns on them. I decided to shift my direction in life toward this - to really study it - and he offered to teach me everything he knew and eventually make me an equal partner, in hopes I could make a life more worth living and escape this horrible career of mine within the next few years. Less than a week after this conversation, my father died unexpectedly at a young age, completely healthy.

That was about four months ago. Aside from the personal grief of losing my father and best friend, I have also lost most of my money in this venture that was ruined by circumstance.

I refuse to let the idea die with him though. If I quit at this he'd be pissed that he couldn't buy me a beer and abscond me for my lack of tenacity.

So now I need to figure out how to gain the knowledge he had.

Chasing this, I have joined bigger pockets, read the beginner's guide, bought several books, and in the process of reading them have nearly filled a notebook with notes. I need more than theoretical knowledge though. So I am looking for some sort of mentor/guide. I am willing to do anything that I can do to be of use. Whether it's checking out properties, researching things, doing odd-jobs related to the business...anything that I can do to make myself half as useful to the benevolent knowledge-giver as they would be to me. If you have any interest in an arrangement, please contact me here and we can talk further.

So much for being succinct.

Other than looking for a mentor and some general guidance regarding finances, I am also interested in any resources that are DC specific, including people.

My ultimate goal is to make solid investments as soon as I am able, starting as small as I have to. I plan on starting with single family homes or duplex/trip/quad, buying and holding until the market is perfect for selling.

Thanks guys, apologies again for the length. You're a trooper if you made it through all that.