New and Painfully Hungry.

[Austin Laubacher]

Hello BP community, my name is Austin. I’m excited to dive into the mix and learn from the many intelligent and experienced users of the BP forums.

I’m completely new to real estate investing. I’ve done some learning over the past few weeks. I’ve accumulated a little bit of knowledge about the industry. I’m posting this to introduce myself and hopefully get some beginner advice. I’ve been listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast. There’s been lots of good info there, but there’s so much of it and it’s not all lined up for a beginner (not saying it should be). But there’s been a lot of sorting and sifting I’ve had to do thus far.

I'm 27 years old. I don’t have large sums of capital for investing. I don’t have any connections in the RE world (yet). I do have time, intelligence, focus, and hunger. I work as a freelance carpenter, mainly for events and some TV shows, so I can control my availability more than someone with a 9 to 5.

I've been looking into wholesaling as a means to generate quick(ish) capital in order to fix/flip or BRRRR or whatever else I find appealing. But I don't know how to go about learning my market (LA County), finding sellers (should I look for on or off-market properties? How would I find them?), or estimating repair costs.

I suppose I need a mentor. Perhaps I could offer my carpentry experience and labor to an experienced fix/flipper in exchange for guidance. The BP podcast talks a lot about adding value to a mentor.

Anyways, thanks for reading this and offering me any friendly greetings and/or advice!