Another newbie from Washington DC area

[Anna Stolpe]

Hello BP community! I am new to real estate investment but I am learning a lot from the collective wisdom on this website and podcast. I am absolutely addicted. I plan to start with buy-and-hold single family houses and see how it goes. 

DC real estate market is still an enigma to me. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to better approach learning about DC neighborhoods?

Thank you all! I am glad to be here. 

[Jon Huber]

@Anna Stolpe

Welcome to the community! It's time to get active. Read the blogs, ask questions, join local meetups, and I see you've already started on the podcasts. They are gold. As for learning the neighborhoods, whenever I am scouting different zipcodes, I generally check three sources:

www.city-data.com

www.areavibes.com

www.usa.com

They will show me everything from population growth, employment, crime, and any other demographic I am interested in. I understand that a lot of zipcodes change from block to block. So, a lot of the time I will talk to a local realtor. NOT the one that has the property listed, because they may "sugar coat" details to get the property sold. Good luck!