New Investor from Chapel Hill, NC

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Hello everyone! I guess New Years Day is apropos to do an introduction! I'm new to the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area. I technically live in CH, but down near Jordan Lake. I'm "sort of" new to real estate investing. Back in 2000 before the bubble burst I would buy a house with zero down, live there for six months and do mostly cosmetic remodels and then sell them for a profit at 6-8 months in. I was paying points and commissions and all that jazz, so not the best, but it worked. That ended of course in 2006, and since then I haven't had the opportunity to do any more real estate investing. Fast forward to today... I'm in a unique position to be able to work on real estate investing full time now, and so trying to decide which direction/niche to start with. I'm fortunate to be able to be a cash buyer for at least one or two projects at a time. I think I want to do fix/flips for residential properties, and maybe some commercial development eventually as well. I'm trying to be smarter about it this time around. I'm reading everything I can here and hoping to take advantage of some of the education and networking opportunities that seem in abundance in the area. The first things I'm focusing on are: 1. I signed up for the broker/agent class and will hopefully be able to get my license in early March. I need to investigate which local realty companies are the best for a provisional broker who is primarily interested in investing. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears. 2. I'm only now starting to understand the concept of wholesaling. I'm interested to find out if buying from a wholesaler is a good way to buy some great deals, or if it's smarter to just try to find opportunities on my own via mls or advertising. I'm guessing the answer to that is quite subjective depending on who you ask. :) 3. I've been reading to try to understand the most advantageous option as far as creating a company to use for my rei business. I'm definitely open to suggestions for a local CPA to work with. Anyway- sorry to be so verbose! I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday and I'm looking forward to meeting folks at the upcoming BP and treia meetings. Happy New Year! - Barbara