New member from South Central Pennsylvania

[Brian Frey]

My family and I just moved back East to be closer to family after a long stint out West in Portland, Idaho and Colorado.  We have made our home just West of Harrisburg (Mechanicsburg, PA). While I work full-time as an IT Consultant, my desire is to move into Real Estate Investing full-time in the near future.  I have done a number of remodeling/renovation jobs (i.e. master bedroom en-suite, bathroom and kitchen remodels, replaced siding and windows, etc.) on the houses that we have owned that have netted us well on resale value so I am familiar with sweat equity and grew up with a family that was involved in home building and land development so it is a bit in my blood there as well.  The plan is to create enough residual income (rentals both single and multi-family) to replace half of my income and give longer-term retirement money with the other half coming from flipping houses (a few a year).  On that note, I would love to hear from you that are in this area (Carlisle, Mechanicsburg, etc.) with any advice on anything from areas to invest in vs. those to stay away from as well realtors, mortgage lenders, CPAs and attorneys that you recommend for REIs like us.  Plus any advice in making that transition would be most helpful as well.