We joined our local REIA (CFRI) which has provided a great foundation to develop our knowledge.I’m looking forward to interacting with you and appreciate any advice.

They NYTimes has a very good rent v buy calculator:http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy...One major flaw when analyzing rent v buy is you need to compare apples to apples.

I bought my first home during the peak of the great recession and am now interested in making moves in the real estate in WA but in TX as well for SFH (3/2, 1,100 – 1,500 Sq ft)I joined BiggerPockets as a way to interact with like-minded individuals interested in the industry and hope to learn from many of you in the coming months. 

There may be some extraordinary reason for getting it back, but as an investor, don't think that a poor inspection report will save you.4.

When I interact with a home seller I always let them know that I'm an agent and take several steps further than that.

My experience has allowed me to manage multi-million dollar budgets and interact with C-Suite executives who depended on my advice to make decisions.

My job selling roofs allows me the unique experience of visiting a lot of having interactions with homeowners so I get an interesting feel of demographics and income.  

There were portions that I liked and portions that I thought could be improved upon.I believe that group cohesiveness and openness are two keys to creating the best environment for people to interact whether they be someone new to REI, like myself, or the most experienced member of a meetup.I am curious...What in your opinion makes for the most optimal meetup?

You don't get the interaction of a class situation but that's probably not a bad thing... there is always that one student that throws off the conversation in directions that no one really cares about and in an interactive class when that one student takes the instructor off course, it's usually at the detriment to the material you need to learn.

I look forward to interacting with the community!