My name is Joe McGranaghan.I'm a senior software engineer is the ecommerce space today.Also a single father of an eight year old girl.I always though 'when I got rich', I would get into real estate lol.I'm almost 40 now and realized the flaw in my plans ...So I've been reading and studying real estate for 3 months now,just devouring everything I can and taking notes, learning more.Went through various emotional stages, anger that I hadn't done this before,excitement, overwhelmed by everything I was learning, and now some clarity.So, this is my current plan to enter:Start with wholesaling.

No logic, strictly emotional decision because family member felt bad for them because they were being evicted and wanted to give the kids a place to stay. 

Dedicate the rest for mission - disaster housing, temporary refugee housing, crisis pregnancy, sober house.There's a long way between here and there, but I can see it!

The idea is to not get emotionally attached to anything.

@Paul Fagot It sounds like you need a partner (however temporary) for the deal. 

I still make mistakes and emotional decisions.

Barring a real catastrophe any interruption will be temporary and a good time to buy if you are positioned for it.  

Work a little , spend time with the family, and spend some time improving yourself ( emotionally, spiritually,intellect). 

A lot of agents I know use another agent for their deals to keep themselves from being emotional about it.Can't speak to costs of getting licensed in VA because I'm in VT, but if you are an investor, the classes might be worthwhile anyways because you'll learn a lot that'll help you with that process regardless.

The best one is that they charge upwards of $3000.00 for temporary service during construction.