Investing in the Northern Virginia Market

[Evan Staats]

For those that think purchasing in the Northern Virginia Market is out of their scope here's the background on my wife and I's latest investment. Transparency, I thought I would never be able to afford Alexandria either.

We showed up to Old Town Alexandria and started renting. 4 months later we found an affordable house in Woodbridge we could get into for a year with low down, then rent it, in the mean time we recoup the capital from our other 2 properties to go buy again after that 12 months. We had a Airbnb that we didn't mean to flip, but we did because STRs weren't for us. We ended up shifting that profit to a property, along with our capital from cashflow, in Rosemont that was an absolute opportunity. It needed love and attention because of all the deferred maintenance. We got an offer accepted 20k below list, appraised for 60k above under contract price, and now the values just keep climbing because the comps just keeping going up for sale for increasing prices. All to say this version of house hacking has worked for us four times in a row now and in 3 years we have 4 properties (currently) one in a location we thought we never could afford. Taking the small steps throughout the years has compounded to this incredible opportunity. 

Don't over leverage yourself, start smaller and the bigger gems will show up at your door step before you know it.