At the request of my wife, I made a Christmas wish list this year.

My goal is to get my first property no later than end of Q1 2018.For my immediate next steps I am 1) starting to write out clear goals on what I want to achieve and break it down into smaller steps.  2) I will be joining the Richmond REIA starting in January (December meeting is Christmas party and I'll be away). 3) Continued meetings with people in my current network that are involved in Real Estate Investing - Found out about a few by chance and have reached out. 

First day... but if they're good tenants, I remember their birthdays, give Christmas cards, and certainly, have no issues asking them if they have thought of seeing their dr.

Merry Christmas!

Steve is right about us not having a meeting in December since it is just a couple of days before Christmas. 

Our next meeting on December 21st this month just before the Christmas holiday.

Was probably too nice and now I have a Christmas vacancy and get to pay heat all winter. 

It's most likely the time of year, there is not a worse one than the period before Thanksgiving to after Christmas.  

You may need to look at listings from people who are trying to sell their own homes without a realtor / talk to neighbors and try to snag them before they go out to market, look for the cosmetically ugly places you can touch up and remove all the contingencies (if you’re comfortable with doing some rehabbing and basic inspection on your own), keep looking and making offers (there are slower times like Christmas where you won’t have as many competetive bids, look at what’s renting for higher than the mortgage (like Marysville), go in with someone who can make a “cash” offer (where they get a business loan and pay the owner all cash), etc.

House shopping between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the best time because most people are in holiday mode so you can get a better deal than spring shopping.Keep your mortgage and take out a HELOC.