

What we’re about
Welcome to GRID!
GRID Gaithersburg is a real estate community built by investors for investors. We are a group of real people doing real deals.
Our core mission is to connect to, learn from, and collaborate with like-minded people interested in building wealth and creating impact through real estate.
We welcome investors of all experience levels. We are life-long learners and believe everyone has value to share.
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How it works
We meet once a month, 12 months a year, on the same day, week, and time of the month. Each month we cover a different investing topic in the Lifecycle of an Investor—ranging from wholesaling to rehabbing to becoming a bank through private lending.
Our meetings are not sales pitches. They are opportunities for us to dive deep into a real estate topic, connect with local experts in our marketplace, and build long-term relationships with other doers and deal-makers.
All of our events are 100% FREE.
Learn more about us at gridinvestor.com
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Join the GRID Facebook Community online 3K+
https://www.facebook.com/groups/gridinvestor
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Your GRID Leadership
GRID Gaithersburg is led by Nick Chaconas and Karen Parnes.
I’m Nick Chaconas, a Montgomery County native. After 20+ years in real estate, I thought I saw it all as an agent. Then I turned my attention to becoming a real estate investor and have had my eyes opened on more than one occasion. In addition to building my own real estate investing business, my life’s work now also revolves around mentoring agents and investors to achieve optimal growth.
Having lived through the highs and lows of entrepreneurship, personal challenges, and reinvention, I’ve mastered the art of integrating resilience, strategic thinking, and mindfulness into every aspect of life.
Drawing from a wealth of experiences that range from overcoming financial struggles to pushing my physical limits in Spartan races (Aroo!), I’ve built a mindset that embraces doing hard things, protecting time, and mastering emotions. I help agents/investors achieve clarity in their goals, create enduring habits, and align their daily actions with long-term visions of success.
My coaching is rooted in practicality. Whether it’s scaling businesses, fostering deep
relationships, or committing to personal development, I believe in actionable strategies that deliver tangible results.
Inspired by a drive for excellence, I blend the wisdom of meditation, physical fitness, and business acumen to help individuals create lives of impact and fulfillment.
If you’re ready to transform your life by challenging the norm and unlocking your potential, let’s connect. Together, we’ll elevate every aspect of your journey.
Karen Parnes is a real estate investor and a licensed Maryland Realtor with over 20 years of experience.
Her journey into real estate began in 2003 when her family and she purchased their first home. Although it was not the right house for them, the experience became the spark that ignited her real estate career. She recognized the need for a better way for buyers and sellers.
Karen learned how to help families, like her own, escape financial hardships through creative real estate solutions. She focuses on education, explaining the process and options while giving clients the knowledge they need to make informed decisions, preventing them from going through what her family experienced.
Over the years, she has had the honor of helping hundreds of clients achieve their real estate goals. Her background includes being on the ground level of launching two prop-tech startups, owning her brokerage, and building systems that help agents, teams, and investors succeed.
Passionate about coaching, she now mentors both agents and investors by guiding them through deals and allowing them to learn hands-on by observing her work and processes.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Creative Real Estate Investing Strategies: Owner Financing, Subject-To, and LeasEmbrace Home Loans, Rockville, MD
Our business is about identifying motivated sellers (and buyers) and offering solutions to their problems.
The more solutions you can offer, the more deals you will get. This month we are discussing creative ways to structure deals that will be the perfect solution for certain circumstances.
Seller financing, subject-to and lease options are powerful solutions, which will only become more popular as interest rates rise. Come discuss how these deals are structured and find your next deal, lender, partnership and inspiration in a room full of other active investors.
See you there!━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Did you miss it?
Watch all GRID event playback on YouTube━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Join the GRID Facebook Community
Join the online GRID community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe. - How to Invest in Notes: Mortgages and Other “Paper” AssetsEmbrace Home Loans, Rockville, MD
Wanna make money in real estate without ever having to own real estate?
This event is all about notes: what they are, where to find them and how they "work.” If tenants, toilets and rehabs aren't your thing, come find out how to control the paper like a pro.
Come for the training, stay for the networking!━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Did you miss it?
Watch all GRID event playback on YouTube━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Join the GRID Facebook Community
Join the online GRID community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe. - How To Buy And Hold: The BRRR Strategy for WealthIl Porto Restaurant, Gaithersburg, MD
You may have heard other investors, gurus and financial planners discussing the virtues of owning rental properties.
And it is definitely true that a portfolio of GOOD rental properties can provide lifetime income and financial security.
But what really makes a GOOD rental property?
What should you expect from your rental portfolio and how do you manage it for maximum return on minimal effort?
We will also deep dive into the BRRRR strategy and show you how it can help you build massive wealth.
BRRRR stands for:
● Buy
● Rehab
● Rent
● Refinance
● Repeat
We'll cover those points and more with real examples and data at this month's meeting.
Come for training, stay for the networking!━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Did you miss it?
Watch all GRID event playback on YouTube━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Join the GRID Facebook Community
Join the online GRID community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe. - How to Use Self-directed IRAs: Watch Your Money Grow Tax-freeEmbrace Home Loans, Rockville, MD
Come hear from the experts on how to buy, hold, flip, rent and profit from real estate, all using the tax-deferred or heavily-tax-advantaged Self-Directed IRA (Individual Retirement Account).
We'll have a representative from a Self-Directed IRA specialist to explain the rules and benefits of this powerful wealth-building strategy.Come for the training, stay for the networking!
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Did you miss it?
Watch all GRID event playback on YouTube━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Join the GRID Facebook Community
Join the online GRID community here to post deals, ask questions, and connect with other investors across the globe.