Greetings BP members! My name is Josh and I am new to the Jacksonville, FL real estate scene and excited to get started!

A little about me: I spent four years in the US Navy as an Aircraft Mechanic. I am currently a full-time student & employee (both in IT Security). I pride myself in being a problem solver, a critical thinker, and a pretty good handyman. I love restoring wooden furniture, building things, and any task that involves me grabbing my tools.

The current order of my goals are as follows:

-Research best loan/finance options for me.

-Start building relationships.

-Purchase rental home(s) (single family most likely) to start generating passive income.

-Long term goal: Have the ability to do ~2-4 fix & flips a year.

I look forward to connecting with people and please reach out if you know if you know of any good meetups I should check out in Jacksonville. I’d love to get a mentor that can help me get started and guide me along the way and one that hopefully I can help out as well. Thanks to everyone who contributes to BP and to Brandon and Josh for the podcasts. It has been an awesome resource for getting started in this field and I can’t wait to learn more!

Comment: Sorry for the formatting, not sure what happened there.

Hi @Joshua Nelson ! Welcome to the BiggerPockets family! You came to the right place to learn all about real estate investing! Here are some recommendations for you:

Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area: http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

Read Beginner’s Guide: http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing

Check out BP Podcasts: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/category/podcast

@Joshua Nelson Happy New Year! If you are not sure about the values around Jacksonville, I would recommend you get familiarized based on the NEFAR data. This is a link to the latest data out, Nov 2018. You can also get good insight into new construction from the monthly reports.

Jacksonville has an unemployment rate of under 3% and is really on fire in terms of jobs coming to town. So its a good growth city and has much going for it, in addition to the Military presence of 3 bases within 50 miles of downtown, as I am sure you are aware. 

If you need help with the city and pockets, always happy to assist. I am fixing/flipping now in 32204, but normally I work in 32205. Best of luck! 

@Mitchlyn D. Thank you I will have to check the meetings out. I appreciate the info and hope to see you around!

@Jack Bobeck Very helpful information! Thank you and please let me know if you ever need a hand with any basic stuff with your flips. I’d love to have a chance to see in person the basics of how it works and get any input you may have. Let me know! Thanks.

@Joshua Nelson

Welcome to Bigger Pockets. This is great place to connect with other professionals.

@Joshua Nelson Welcome to BP.  I am sure that you will find a ton of connections that can make your investments worthwhile and simple for you.  

@Joshua Nelson ...I am in a similar boat as you.  So in order to help each other, I am kicking off a virtual (online) meet-up for Jacksonville Real Estate investors starting Jan 14th. It will be every Monday from 12-1pm & its designed to accommodate busy professionals (with day time jobs).

It will be via Webex, so you can join from any online connection or just by audio conference only. Come if you can....but dont sweat it if you are busy that week.

There is no cost & no obligation....This group is intended to be a brown bag (lunch) sharing session for those interested in Jacksonville, FL investments. Sign-in..... bring your Questions, Challenges & Opportunities to discuss as a group. You can meet likeminded local investors & all help each other grow our business together.