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I've started diving deep into studying Real Estate using BP and other associated products for the past 3 months. I've read, as many people have, Rich Dad and Poor Dad along with numerous other books from the BP bookstore such as SOLD, BRRRR, Finding and Funding Great Deals, Raising Private Capital, Rental Property Investing, THE BOOK ON ESTIMATING REHAB COSTS. But other ones are Think and Grow Rich, and What every Real Estate Investor Needs to know about Cash Flow and 36 other key Financial Measures. The question is what do I need to start doing to get a step forward into Real Estate Investing? Are there other resources worth studying, watching, and listening to? I've also looked for local REIAs in my area to learn from, but it seems that I am unable to find any, are there ones here that I am unaware of?

I planned on getting my Real Estate license for my State as soon as I graduated high school and working as an agent so that I can gain experience from that side of Real Estate. Though I do plan on attending college while I work as an agent, I am curious about what others would do in my situation. Would it be better to focus completely on college and learn Real Estate on the side, or perhaps have a mixed balance of working in the industry while pursuing my education?

Nathan Gesner · Answer

College is almost always a waste of time, particularly for an investor. You can learn everything you need to know for free on BiggerPockets. Buy some books and you'll accelerate that learning. Get a coach or mentor and it will accelerate even more. An above-average person can self-study and know what they need within 3-6 months. You can be financially independent and wealthy in 10 years.

Start by developing a goal. What do you hope to achieve? If you don't know where you're going, we can't help you get there.

Reverse engineer. If your goal is $10,000 a month for the rest of your life, how many houses or apartments or storage units will it take to get there? If you decide it will take 10 fully-paid for houses and you want to have them within 10 years, what will it take to buy house #1, then house #2, etc. Do the hard work, put it in writing, and follow it. You'll be leaps ahead of most.

Once your plan is developed, make a list of what you need to know (analyzing properties, finding deals, inspections, application screening, etc.) and start educating yourself. How will you get the money to put down on a property? Can you qualify for a loan? Can you partner with someone to accelerate this process? There are many things to learn, but you'll accelerate your learning by putting pencil to paper, making a list, and then knocking things out one at a time.

Here's some generic advice.

1. Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free). It will familiarize you with the basic terminology and benefits. Then you can read a more in-depth book like The Book On Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner or The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing by Spencer Strauss.

2. Get your finances in order. Get rid of debt, build a budget, and save. The idea that you can build wealth without putting any money into it is a recipe for disaster and the sales pitch of gurus trying to steal your money. A wise investor will not try to get rich quick with shortcuts. If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing. Check out my personal favorite, Set For Life by Scott Trench , or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

3. As you read these books, watch the biggerpockets podcasts. This will help clarify and reinforce what you are reading. You can hear real-world examples of how others have built their investment portfolio and (hopefully) learn to avoid their mistakes.

4. Now you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them. Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books for this or you can learn by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum. There is a handy search bar in the upper right that makes it easy to find previous discussions, blogs, podcasts, and other resources. Biggerpockets also has a calculator you can use to analyze deals and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy. If you consistently analyze properties, it will be much easier to recognize a good deal when it shows up. Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice. It doesn't take long to learn how to spot a good deal.

5. Study the market. You can learn to do this on your own or get a rockstar REALTOR to lead the way. I highly recommend a well-qualified REALTOR that works with investors and knows how to best help you.

6. Jump in! Far too many get stuck in the "paralysis by analysis" stage, thinking they just don't know enough to get started. The truth is, you could read 100 books and still not know enough because certain things need to be learned through trial-and-error. You don't need to know everything to get started; you just need a foundation to build on and the rest will come through experience and then refining your education.

You can build a basic understanding of investing in 3-6 months. How long it takes to be financially ready is different for everyone. Once you're ready, create a goal (e.g. "I will buy at least one single-family home, duplex, triplex, or fourplex before the end of 2019") and then do it. Real estate investing is a pretty forgiving world and the average person can still make money even with some pretty big mistakes.

Dan Sheeks · Answer

Hey @Cesar Rivera,

Congrats on your ambition!

Bigger Pockets recently published a book that's perfect for you! It's called First to a Million. You should check it out! If you have questions about the book, let me know. I am the author. :-) Also, check out this forum post.

In addition, DM me if you are interested in an online community of young, like-minded individuals.

Best of luck to you!

Cesar Rivera · Answer

Thank you Rene G for the reply

I'll take in your recommendations and find a specific strategy to focus on. I have an idea of what I want to pursue, mainly composed of investing into Long Term Rentals and Syndication. I've read that the BRRRR method would help boost the Long Term Rental concept allowing me to acquire more homes and utilize my money better. I'll start looking into how much cash flow I'm aiming for per month, along with how many homes I want to own. But I do know I have to goal to start a company to do a large volume of deals to acquire large amount of home(again, I still need to get the numbers down which I will have in a few days).

TLDR

I have to make a financial end game and plan.

Rene G. · Answer

Hi there Cesar,

Great job! You're off to a good start with your research. By now you must have a good idea of what style/strategy you want. For example, my style is long-term SFRs with buy-and-hold forever with easy selfservice-management so I can leave an inheritance to my kids (I don't think my kids want to be a landlord so I need to build my rental operation to practically run itself). What is yours?

Do you like flipping, hoteling, short-term rentals, multifamily, syndication, etc? Once you really dial in what you want, and explain exactly what you're trying to do, then I think people would be able to help you better. I get it...it's hard to know what you want sometimes, but you have to give it a lot of thought and forecast the future a bit. Anyways, that's how I see it...

Problem is, your question is a bit too broad and you might get a lot of random advice. If you don't know what you want yet, then maybe it's not time to put together your plan of attack. Tell me, how can you narrow down what you want out of real estate investing, like what's your ideal "forever" plan?

Rene G

Steven Foster Wilson · Answer

Hi Cesar,

I went to college and did real estate on the side. It was very hard although I enjoyed it because a lot of my classes were about real estate and I was able to network a lot. If you want to do that I would make sure you go to a university that has a good RE program or people you can network with. Have you reached out to the universities that you are considering going to? I know there are also zoom networking events. You could try to jump on some of those. I would reach out to local brokerages and ask to follow a realtor, appraiser, an inspector, and whatever other aspect interest you. That will also help you grow your network.

Cesar Rivera · Answer

Thank you Shane,

I see what you're saying about taking a trade instead of traditional college to gain experience, but in my case I know what I'm pursuing in college, that being my MBA in Business.

Cesar Rivera · Answer

Thank you Dan,

I appreciate you're invite and am very interested about joining the group.

Shane Dante · Answer

I'm not an experienced real estate investor but I do have some insights on the college bit.

Firstly, if you don't know what you'd go to college for that tells me you shouldn't force it.

I went to college, did well, I treated it very transactional. I did get some jobs directly because of my college education and certainly it was a rewarding and valuable experience but I think I would have ended up somewhere about where I am today without it.

Without knowing what you are interested in, besides real estate, it's hard to make recommendations on specific paths. Obviously you are going to have to make some money and pay the bills while building up your real estate portfolio.

One last note - not everyone will make a good real estate agent. I'm not one, I don't know even if I would be a good one. I do think it takes a special person to make a great one though.

Don't overlook trade school. Real estate investors are always looking for decent electricians, plumbers, contractors, landscapers, pool builders, you name it. If you know the trades you will be better able to negotiate, speak the language, and understand costs.

Cesar Rivera · Answer

Thank you Nathan G.

Your response has given me a lot to think about and helps out a ton. Thank you again!

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