All Forum Posts by: Anthony Reale

Thanks everyone for all the great meetup options! I knew the BP community would set me straight, I look forward to connecting with you all.

@Edward B.  - That is awesome insight on wholesalers, thank you! I think the not helping people in a bind thing is the worst. One of the reasons I wanted to jump in this business is the fact that you can help/make money with good people and do it in a mutually beneficial way. I'll keep my bad-wholesaler radar on at all times!

@Doug W. - Thanks for the heads up on the other groups, hopefully I'll see ya at one of them!

@Jessica Swingle - Congrats on your newborn! I'll be on the lookout for your next meetup and am looking forward to chatting real estate with you guys.

@Reid Thompson - That's awesome, I basically had the same path to finding BP as well back in December. It also helped me identify what was going on last night, so double bonus. I'll be doing the next CAZA meetup in Falls Church on 4/20, would be great to link up!

@Edward B. - For sure, I'll at least go to next month's event for the networking at a minimum, hopefully 2nd time is a charm. My biggest issue is being shy due to my lack of confidence in the industry so far, but I have to get over that. May I ask what your biggest pet peeves are with some wholesalers? Do they tend to make their "deals" seem better than they really are? Maybe that can save me some future headaches.

I attended this meetup last night in Tyson's and was disappointed to find out it was a 2+ hour video pitch for Phil Grove's training program. I have nothing against the presenter or the training program (I'm sure it's great) but I recognized the set-up (free meet-up, pitch a $100 3 day event, pitch the really expensive training at that event.)

Anyone else in the Northern VA/DC area have other meetups they like? I really enjoy the monthly CAZA meetup in Falls Church, went once so far and just need to be less shy. Found some others on meetup.com I'll probably try, but my goal as a just-starting-newbie is to find good people to connect with and provide value or help in any way I can. Thoughts?

I think last Friday was the first "Pro only" one Brandon has done so far, but I agree with the group that it was awesome. Hopefully there are more Pro only webinars to come

Sounds good Chanell! I've been in Northern VA for about 2.5 years and starting to know the towns/neighborhoods pretty well, let me know if you have any questions on the area.@Chanell Fleming 

Hey @Joeliyn T.thanks and welcome to you as well!

So my quick guru trap story, I saw an ad on facebook for a local free 2 hour RE seminar in Tyson's. I went and really liked some of the things they discussed, and decided to sign up for the 3 day workshop they advertised for about $100, not too bad I thought. The workshop was great but it all lead to the 30k+ mastery course they were trying to sell. They take you aside and try to pump you up to buy it right then and there, and in the moment you want to just go for it. But luckily I declined knowing there had to be better options, which lead me here!

thank you everyone for the warm welcome! 

What's up BiggerPockets! After lurking in the shadows for a while I figured it was time to stop being shy and introduce myself on the forums. I found BP shortly after I barely escaped a guru trap two months ago and have been trying to soak up the articles, podcasts, posts, and recommended books ever since. Quite simply, this site rocks.

As for a little bit about me, I currently work and live in Arlington, VA. I've always been interested in real estate but didn't really take it seriously until I found, what I hope to be, a long term home here in the DC area. I grew up in NJ, lived in Charleston, SC for a while, and went to Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!) I'm still looking at all types of strategies but leaning towards buy and hold properties, and possibly the house-hacking strategy Brandon often talks about. The latter seems like it could be a smart start in an expensive DC / Northern VA market.