The New Guy from Central Virginia

[Chad Clanton]

Good morning everyone, my name is Chad Clanton. I'm 30 years old, married with a 6 month old and not quite 3 year old, and am just starting in real estate. I am a US Army vet currently working in the security field, both of which have left me with a lively case of chronic insomnia and next to no time. I've been reading everything I can for the past six months on real estate, from tax sales to wholesaling strategies, and generally learning in my free time. I enjoy studying, and even more applying, processes, particularly when I can see a result from my efforts. After almost eight years in security, I finally glanced into the generalities of real estate, and realized that I was frankly intrigued. So, here I am.

That said, I initially got suckered for a significant sum of money for a tax/ real estate program, and have learned more from ten articles on BP than I ever did with the program. Wish I'd known about BP then, but possibly a good lesson to learn right out of the gate. In any event, given what research I've done thus far, I would like to explore fix and flip properties in the short term, expanding into buy and hold/ rentals over time. I am considering getting my real estate license in order to better understand the processes involved, as well. That said, though mine and my wife's work eats a huge amount of our time and will no doubt somewhat depress our learning curve, it does provide us funds to embark on this venture, just proving the good comes right along with the not quite so good.

As a bit of background, an amusing (somewhat) anecdote: our current house, our first, may become our first flip. Around this time last year, we purchased a largish 4 bed, 3 bath home, built in 2007, on short sale in a higher end rural commuter subdivision. The previous owner didn't insulate the finished attic/3rd floor, and there was only one outlet i.e, unpermitted work. Nice laminated hardwood floors, but no insulation. Ok, we knew about it, no issue. Then we realized we have to reroute drainage from all the downspouts, because the house is at the bottom of a hill and graded toward, not away, from the house. Ok, easy work. Then, the well pump goes out because they used a $5 plastic connector rather than a $10 brass one. Had another installed. So, needless to say the love story with the house has gone by this point, and we figure we'll turn the finished attic into an in-law type suite with bed, bath, and small sitting room and take care of any issues we find, then put it up for sale. One comp in the neighborhood over the past few months was a foreclosure with one less bedroom and water damage in the basement that went for the same price we paid, while another somewhat smaller comp, also a foreclosure, went for about $35k less, and a similar, though brick faced and with one less bedroom, went for $45k more. Best of all, the developer has been doing all the advertising for the rest of the subdivision , and there have been at least five families scoping out the subdivision recently. So, we'll see :-)

In any event, I apologize if this was a (very) long winded intro; I'll try to keep things a bit more concise in the future. Also, I apologize for any typos, as I constantly end up typing on my Ipad or phone. Thanks for all of your time, and I look forward to hearing from all of you. Take care, and good luck.