Hello From VA/DC
Hello BiggerPockets,
To introduce myself, I am a 23 year old aspiring Real Estate Investor originally from the Virginia Beach, Virginia area. I have dreamed and planned on investing in real estate since I was around 10 years old, due to my love of landscaping and general building(contracting) mentality.
I grew up in a lower middleclass family who has never known a savings account, and was not able to persuade my relatives to allow me to use loaned money during the 2010-2013 time frame, which made me realize that I had to build a wealth support base to fund this dream.
I have a "Project mentality" in work and life, which leveraged with the internet and the help of Youtube, has allowed me to successfully do most project I have set out to do. From the age of 16-20, along with my buddies, I bought, fixed, and sold over 20 cars mostly specializing in VW. Being the only male in the household growing up, I have maintained all three family cars, general house work, such as building deck/ driveway/ landscaping.
I have always been gifted in Math, and decided to apply that skills within the Finance realm while in highschool and college, seeking the American dream of passive and active investing rather than working behind a desk for 40 hours a week. I was one of the small 15% of my highschool to pursue higher education. I received my Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics, Quantitative Finance, and Economics in May 2015 from James Madison University.
I currently do financial modeling and pricing valuation for a Federal Client, and have realized that the 40 hours a week I feared looks more like 60 on an average week. Living in the DC area, I have found that it was not as easy as I predicted to save up a large chunk of capital, and realized I need to start making moves now to position myself in the future.
I now have a small amount of savings (around 15k) that I have considered not pivotal to my everyday life (i.e. expendable). Although my background is in the financial markets I am not willing to put in money as I fear the markets are too top heavy. I have similar fears about the housing market, but with interest rates so low, am considering buying into a rental property in the Virginia Beach area. My mother and a large group of contacts still live and work out of the area, and the military presence creates a great rental market and in my opinion shelters that market from economic downturn.
I have been listening to BP podcasts for about a month and received so much knowledge it has made me hungry to get in and try this. I have been buying and reading up on books about both acquiring and managing these rental properties, as I have an intensive desire to research before I do anything in life. I know that this will be something I do in life, so I figure it's worth the potential of getting in to high to learn the process and deal structure before these houses become much more reasonably priced. I have also been actively seeking a few mentors to help me through this process.
I would love to connect with some of you and hear what you have to say about this idea, and the VB area in general. I really appreciate what this website offers and look forward to hearing and seeing what people have to say.
Thank You so Much BP,
Nick