If however yiu have big costs coming up with a wedding or something like that you might want to keep cash back for a little while to cover those expenses.

Theres a meet up wed. that you may want to consider networking at.

I am going to try to be there as long as I can get away next Wed., and will keep and eye out for you. 

There is a good meetup in Columbia, MD the third Weds of the month and MAREIA in Ownings Mills has lots of regular meetings.

welcome to BP @Christopher V.Here's a list of recommended bookshttps://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/04/1...Listen to ALL the podcasts, every one of them has value And lastly, go network in your local REI@Michael Barbari has a meetup next Wed in DGhttps://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/38...

So, my question is this: would it be wise, if we could find the right deal, to buy a single-family, fixer-upper a few months before the wedding, fix it up, then live in it till December, at which time we'd hand it over to a property management company for the year we go abroad and collect a small income from the rent.

Wife and I will be in St Charles next week for a wedding reception and at the same time want to look at a few properties in old St Charles.  

I like real estate for the opportunity that it provides.Some of my investor buyers for my listings have multiple stock accounts they pull from to purchase real estate.Personally I like real estate because it is a tangible asset.I don't like the idea of paper to be worth 100 one day and 10 cents the next.At least with a property barring and act of God or some other strange occurrance I will have a tangible asset to sell.I know some will say but if you bought at the height of the market you would be upside down on that tangible asset.I didn't buy anything back then.I saw many people laughing and making money refinancing and to be honest I did feel like maybe I was missing out.I waited on now I am so glad that I did because many of those same people laughing with joy are crying in pain.Stocks just like real estate is something that if you just dabble in it you can lose everything.The sexy part of stocks just like real estate is to make money quick but many more lose than win.The losers aren't talked about much but the few winners are pumped up to sell marketing and courses to extract money from the herds.For my honeymoon years ago we went to Tennessee.While there my wife had an adverse reaction I think to the make up used at the wedding (she has sensitive skin).So we went to a local doc.This guy was really nice but old in his late 80's.We started chatting up and he said it was just a reaction to something and gave her a shot.I talked about real estate.That's when he said him and his wife had put all of their retirement in Enron stock and had it for awhile then BOOM the bottom fell out and they lost everything.He had to come out of retirement and open a practice again in his late 80's to make ends meet.That scared the hell out of me and made me stay away from stocks.I might eventually buy a small amount for a long term hold but I am not into risk with stock market.I have seen too many people see big dollar signs with their eyes and lose their shirts.

Also, there are many REIA groups around here as well as an excellent FREE Meetup that meets in Columbia the 2nd Weds of the month (just had the January meeting this week).

Ruth, the NHREIA meets in Manchester on the 2nd Wed, www.nhreia.com.