All Forum Posts by: Christopher Lightner

Hi @Rawle S. Somersall Jr., welcome to BP! If you haven't already,

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts (wholesaling, Hampton Roads, Portsmouth, etc.)

Read the beginners guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

Check out BP Podcasts: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast/

There are a lot of wholesalers in Hampton Roads, many of whom I know are more than willing to give advice if you are willing to learn. All you have to do is ask. 

Be sure to make liberal use of the search feature on the forums as many of your general questions have probably been answered in great detail.

Try to make it to our local REIA meetings to network. TRIG (Tidewater Real Estate Investor's Group) meets monthly in Virginia Beach. There are also others on meetup.com you can search for.

I imagine the wholesalers I've been talking to recently would say it's still legal.

Hi @Justin Fraser, I wouldn't mind getting together Friday night to talk shop. Similar to @Chris L. I haven't personally invested in commercial, but would like to talk to someone who is.

As far as property management, we have a full service commercial sales and management division at my brokerage. I can put you in touch with them if you'd like.

Hey @Mark Shiiba I just met up with @Michael Vittorio this weekend. We would have loved to have you there to add to the conversation. Welcome to the Navy family by the way, and thank you for your service.

Hi @Jonny Volland, welcome to BP! If you haven't already, 

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts (BRRRR, Portsmouth, VA, etc.)

Read Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

Check out BP Podcasts: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast/

It's good to see you are planning ahead so you have plenty of time to identify where you want to live and get everything in order to be successful. 

No problem. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to reach out to me. My contact information is in my profile.

Von Olds there are quite a few. The largest in the area is TRIG or Tidewater Real Estate Investors Group. There is also the Hampton Roads Landlord Association run by Patti Robertson (phone won't let me tag her, I'll try to remember to do it later), you can find it on meetup.com. There is another investor group that meets up on the peninsula, and I know there are others I am missing.

Hi @Christopher Nelson, welcome to BP! If you haven't already, 

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

Read Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

Check out BP Podcasts: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast/

Do you have any prior experience in real estate, or is this your first entry into the field? I've got a couple properties in the area that I've had a pretty good experience with, and would really like some friends/partners to work with and share experiences with as we progress through our real estate careers.

@Michael Vittorio this is a question that you'll never get the same answer to, because it all boils down to individual risk tolerance. It also has to do with your cash flow goals. 

You may be comfortable starting with a $3000 fund then watching it disappear after replacing a $5000 roof and putting $2000 on credit cards, only to use 10 months of cash flow to pay off the card and another 15 to rebuild your $3000 initial CAPEX fund.

Hopefully you wouldn't buy unless the house had a newer roof, HVAC, and good inspection though if you were in that situation. Like you said above, buying a recently renovated house SHOULD help push some of those issues into the future, but you still need to save for those expenses, so make sure the numbers work to make that happen so you don't end up in a money pit.

I'll PM you about meeting up. There's a place in Norfolk I want to check out.

Also if you want to tag someone, start by typing the @ sign followed by the first few letters of their name, then click their name in the drop-down box that should show up under where you are typing. That will create the hyper-linked name and tag them. Took me awhile to figure that one out :)

@John J. If you haven't already, 

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

Read Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

Check out BP Podcasts: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast/

Have you been out looking at any properties yet, or do you have an idea of any areas where you'd like to own a rental?

(edited, fixed formatting)