I'd note that if capital appreciation is a goal for you, historically in NOVA lowered priced (and smaller properties) such as condos and townhouses will appreciate at a faster rate.

We get a lot of NOVA investors looking in Richmond because prices are so much lower here.

Maybe we can get a STR meetup going in the NOVA area soon.

I've recently been gifted a plot of land back in my hometown (East Preston, Nova Scotia, Canada if any of you are familiar).

If you want to speed up the process, unless you want to try and be a builder or you have the capital to flip luxury real estate, you'd either have to try and BRRRR/flip remotely in other markets like Calgary, Winnipeg, Nova Scotia, etc etc.

If you can start building as many relationships as possible through attending these meetups, you will start moving in the right direction faster than you may expect.I would throw out some meetups, but I would just download the  Meetup App, and then search for Real Estate in the NOVA/DC/Maryland Area, you will find a ton.

@Shafi Noss Not any specific properties at the moment, but I continuously look in NoVA. 

There's not many of us younger guys in the NOVA area seems like. 

Investing out of province isn't a bad idea either, there are cashflow markets in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and even Calgary is pretty good value right now.Feel free to reach out, always down to talk some real estate.

I'm no VA-loan expert, but believe they cap at 4 units.