Newbie investor from NJ!

[Jamal Momon]

Hey BP Fam! My name is Jamal Momon and I'm extremely new to REI. I'm married with 3 kids and we just purchased a home in Union NJ back in October of 2016. We both currently work 9-5, but my goal is to "Get Out" and be a full time investor! I'm a QA Analyst for an email marketing company, but I also have a background in graphic design. For the past year, I've had this burning passion to stage homes. I guess it came after we started doing ours (watching Fixer Upper kinda added to it as well). I guess it's my inner creative trying to find a way to fuse both worlds. I'd love to be able to stage the homes we flip, especially since most investors don't do this, but I just don't know if it's worth it. I've been reading and I've seen that staged homes often fetch a higher price tag, but I guess I'd have to factor in time and costs. Our current issue is we only have about 8k to spend right now and we're interested in flipping and buy and hold apartments in the north to central NJ area. My first thoughts are to flip a few homes first, in order to build capital, and then grow enough to start purchasing buy and holds as well. I'd definitely appreciate any insight here. I can't stress how much I've learned from BP in my 3 days of being a member lol. From the forum posts to the podcasts, and I'm not even a podcast guy. I appreciate it all and I'm schedule to attend a meet up in Weehawken on 8/1. Hoping to meet and network with some great people. What's in my head is, meet wholesalers and get on buyer's lists, meet investors and gain knowledge, connect with experienced investors. I really need to learn the best way to get from 8k to flipping my first home. Or is that just not enough? Should I try to stack more first before I jump in? I have a very experienced realtor on my side and he has put me in contact with a wholesaler/lender, which is great, but almost all of his properties are in bad areas like Trenton, Irvington, and Newark. I have some faith in Newark, but I'd definitely like to hear some advice from people with more skin in the game. Hope I haven't ranted to long lol. I'm just happy to be here and extremely excited to start REI and build a better life for my family.