Starting out & Very overwhelmed

[Kristi Tietz]

Hello all, my name is Kristi. I am a single mother looking to break into REI. I have wanted to do this for years, but always let fear get in the way. I am ready now. The problem is, is when I search for or make any inquiries about real estate investing, I get absolutely bombarded and overwhelmed with all these classes that people want you to take and pay for. There seems to be 1,000,001 different types of these. And most of them are very expensive. I believe wholeheartedly that I would benefit from a mentor. However, I am very leery of just paying someone or a company that I am not familiar with thousands of dollars to help me. I live in Michigan. In the metro Detroit area. I am mainly interested in flipping and maybe wholesaling. ANY advice would be helpful at this point! I need to know how to get started. Like I said I am ready! But, just don't want to start off wasting thousands of dollars to find help, only to be scammed. I'm sure this is happened to plenty of people out there. Like I said, any advice or anything anybody wants to tell me would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much!!

Kristi 

[Sherry Patterson]

@Kristi Tietz Hi Kristi, Congrats on the decision to get started. Obviously everyone's journey is their own and everyone learns differently. Let me start by saying that EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE! You can chose to try and do it on your own without a mentor and will more than likely lose money your first couple of deals while you learn. Or you pay for a mentor and learn from them and their mistakes to be profitable quicker. Either way is expensive. You don't know what you don't know and therefore don't know to ask! My history: I found bigger pockets and spent months reading and learning. Then one day on one of the podcasts someone said the only way to do it is to just do it. So I went out the next day and found a house to buy and flip. At this time I could not find any REI groups around here. Everything I knew I had learned here on BP. I made a good and bad decision of buying a house that was built in 1890! Bad because it needed EVERYTHING! Good because it was a huge learning experience because it needed everything. I lost about $17k (I think because accounting is probably the main thing you need training on) on this first deal. Went and bought my second house, I only lost $12k on that one! BTW I had gone and met with a local mentor that wanted $20k and I thought he was crazy, I could do it on my own. In hind site that $20k could have not only saved me that $29k I lost (probably more) but could have made me a substantial profit on those houses plus gave me a much better education and saved me a ton of TIME! Can you really put a price tag on time? I started looking for people on BP in my area and asking if they wanted to get together. They did! First time we met there were 6 of us. We decided to meet monthly and it turned in to my own REI group which was great! I brought the people that were smarter and more experienced to me. We are starting our 8th year it is called IMPACT and pre covid I was doing 3 meetings a month in 3 cities with over 8k members. We started back in March live with one meeting and are building back up. I found sponsors to pay for the meetings and we provide free networking, dinner and always great education at each event. I don't allow guru sales but do have people come in an teach master classes that people can pay for. I said all of this to say, I WISH I WOULD HAVE FOUND A MENTOR FIRST! I have done it all and taught it all, wholesaling, flipping, BRRRR, multifamily, short term rentals, RV/MHP, to syndications. I strongly recommend what others have said and find a few local REI groups. Start attending and get to know them. Find someone that is either a mentor or willing to mentor. First and foremost make your goals: BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) and back out from there: 10y, 5y, 3y, 1y, monthly, weekly, daily goals to get you where you want to go and make sure you make choices to spend time on it EVERY DAY! Then look at your finances and talk to different types of lenders; hard money, conventional, private, and see what is realistic. (we investors can get very creative with financing) Maybe get a partner! With partners you can do more together with money and knowledge. Don't be greedy you had rather own a percentage of something than all of nothing. Hone in on what you want to do. Don't try to do multiple things in the beginning. If you are going to wholesale then do that, if you are going to flip then do that... become an expert in that and then move on to the next thing. I have so many ways to create income in "real estate" I have posted about them on the forums quite a bit. It doesn't have to be traditional, there are a lot of ways to make a lot more money with less risk as you build your business. (and a lot less competition) I would be more than happy to have a call with you if you are interested. I am in Fort Worth, TX so not trying to sell you anything. Just willing to help because I know how hard it was for me getting started and if I can help you over that hurdle just reach out! Happy Investing!