Ultimately I do not want to do "flips" as a large portion of my business.

Ultimately I do not want to do "flips" as a large portion of my business.

Then you must do a couple other things to ultimately win the game.  

I had a couple of awful experiences with them in the past, in part I suspect, to the agent trying drive up prices, premiums and ultimately commissions for himself. 

I've seen bits and pieces of this subject on BP, but I don't recall seeing anything comprehensive like an "ultimate guide" etc.

That is also barring the additional $2,000 that I have no idea where it came from if the talked about sale price is ultimately intended to be $25k.  

Whats your ultimate goal?

Time to build the foundation below.Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.

I imagine you may even be able to find a good investor/agent through this great site.A great place to start learning is the Ultimate Beginners Guide:http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investingRealtor.com is another great place to search, I started a search for you and filtered the list down to multi-family properties within 20 miles of Ashburn, you can play around with the search to meet your preferences, but it should be a good place to start!

Time to build the foundation below.Check out the Start Here page http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast - A weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice.