New Member from Virginia

[Frank G.]

Hello my name is Frank an I'm in the Northern Virginia area. My wife and I started our Real-estate journey a little over a two years ago when we bought our first townhouse. We purposely bought a property that was well under our budget and was a fixer-upper. We spent the following year slowly working on it until we got it where we wanted it to be. Once we had done that, we decided it was time to buy a SFH for us to live in as we wanted some more space. Since the numbers worked (rental income was more then our expenses) I convinced my wife that It would be a good idea to not sell the townhouse, but to keep it and rent it out, as I had seen through research that real estate could be a great investment vehicle. Fast forward to the present, and we have been landlords for just under a year and we have had a positive experience. We did our research when selecting a tenant and it paid off as they have been great, although the year has not been without its difficulties as we have dealt with burst pipes which caused a flooded basement, and A/C and electrical issues; but all in all we dealt with it in stride.

Sorry for being long winded, but I thought it would be a good idea to give a little background as to where Im coming from. 

I have been reading the forums and listing to the podcasts for a while now, and I am finally introducing myself because I want to joint the community here and gain more experience and insite into the world of real estate investing. I see the benefit for expanding our real estate portfolio, but we are kind of unsure how to continue. I am interested in fix and flip and buy and hold investing, and financing. Thanks!

[Marc M.]

Originally posted by @Frank G.:

@Vanessa K. Thanks! I am on the 66 side of Manassas.

@Reid Thompson Thanks for the welcome! I am really looking forward to digging into the tools and forums offered on biggerpockets and asking questions.

@Carson Sweezy I think I would like to try a REI meetup sounds like a good idea. how do I go about attending one?

 Just shoot me your credit card #, date of birth, bank account info, SSN and we'll get you RSVP'd.  :-)

On a serious note, welcome to BP!  Most meetups are generally open to anyone, and some cost a few bucks to pay for the rental of the room.  I attend the monthly Gaithersburg meetup which may be somewhat of a hike for you but well worth it if you can stand the drive.  

There is a meetup section here on BP but I've noticed that not all meetups are announced every month, or sometimes even at all.  Your best bet would be to try to reach out to people you see talking about them, like Carson above, and get the details.

Hope to see you around!