New guy from Leesburg, VA

[Paul Farmer]

Hello all!

I've been lurking for a few days and found some pretty good threads on REI. So I figured I'd join and see what else I can learn. I've got a lot of questions on a variety of things re: real estate investing and it looks like this forum will be able to give me some good answers.

I'm guessing this is where we tell a little about ourselves. So here it goes, hope it isn't to long.

I'm 26 and was recently married in May. My wife and I own 4 properties, (3 rentals and the SFH we live in.) My parents have owned investment properties as long as I can remember, and I can remember being a little kid going out to work on them. As much as I hated spending my summers working on the houses the experience I gained was something you couldn't pay for.

I graduated from Virginia Tech in May 2003 and lived at home for the summer while I started my full time career as an IT Consultant. My parents being the loving people they are told me rent of $1000 started in September 2003. They said they'd save half for me to use as a down payment on my first place. I closed on my first townhouse in August, so no rent for me!! Lived there for 1 year before my girlfriend (now wife) moved in.

In Feb 2005 we were driving around and saw an open house. The place needed mostly cosmetic work but was a cute house in a nice neighborhood with a great yard. Lots of potential so we put in an offer. We got a fair price and were able to rent my townhouse, for a monthly loss, but it is rented.

We lived there for a year and started looking for another investment. But with the market in Northern Virginia it was almost impossible to purchase a place with little cash down and not take a huge loss trying to rent it. We were interested in flipping, and were hesitant in jumping into that market. We are avid VT Football fans and spend most Fall weekends in Blacksburg, VA watching games. Our interest in real estate had us looking around Blacksburg to see what places were selling/renting for. After running the numbers we decided to purchase a townhouse in Blacksburg with our parents (to help mitigate any risk). We manage the place and have had pretty good success (only been 1 year but it hasn't been to bad).

This summer we decided to purchase another place in Blacksburg but on our own. Close in August and the place is rented until July 2008. Things are working so far and we already thinking about our next purchase.

We'd like to try flipping (in the Northern Virginia area) and think the market is getting a little better for that. We are also considering picking up another rental in Blacksburg, but have also talked about buying a place with some friends to stay at during football season. [This is a whole other can of worms that I'll be asking about in the future!]

Anyway, wanted to introduce myself. Don't know if anyone will actually read all of that, and I know I'm a super beginner so I have lots to learn, and it looks like I have found the place to start!!