Yet Another New Member

[Eric Smith]

Hello everyone, my name is Eric and (SURPRISE!) I'm interested in learning more about real estate investing! I had the fortune or misfortune to get introduced to the Clayton Morris podcast while I waited over two hours on the runway for my plane to take off from Atlanta this week. I immediately downloaded Brandon Turner's REI book and was up until 4am reading it. I'm definitely excited!

I live in the Silver Spring, MD, area but would probably look to invest in other areas of the country. Two areas of interest right now for me are the Augusta, Ga, and Raleigh, NC, area, respectively.  I'm also looking to move to the Mystic, CT, area in the future so I'm interested in that area as well.  I travel for work so I've been introduced to a lot of parts of the country.  I'm not afraid to look outside of where I live.  

Fortunately, I've managed to save some cash in the past few years so I'm probably looking to buy with some amount down for my first property and go from there.  Ideally, I'd like something safe.  I'm sure that's not different from a lot of first time investors, but I'm also sure that's easier said than done.  

If anyone with an established pedigree would be interested in serving as a mentor, I'd be most appreciative. I work in analytics and would really like to see what tools for REI are out there besides Zillow, Redfin, etc. If not, I'll just try to soak up as much of the forums as I can. Thanks for reading!

[Dawn Brenengen]

I agree with @Neal Isaacs.  Raleigh DOES rock.  I just wonder what draws people to our little city.  I'm not sure at what point we were put on the map, but it seems like everyone has been interested in Raleigh lately.