New from Washington/Illinois

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Hi,
I'm new to this forum, and am just getting started in the realm of real estate investing. I grew up in central Illinois, and my husband and I bought a small house there--then he got a new job, we sold the house (lost some money on it, too), and moved to Seattle. I wish I'd known more about real estate investing back then- I would have probably rented our house out and held onto it for a while, but I guess we'll just count it a lesson learned. We're working on getting our savings rebuilt in order to purchase a second "first" home, and *then* we'd like to start looking into investing elsewhere (perhaps back in Illinois, where we know more about the investing climate... and it's a lot cheaper!). Hope to get to know more of you soon,
~Jade