Newbie investor seeking advice on real estate education

[Michael Leccese]

Hello,

My name is Michael Leccese and I am a college student. I have just started my real estate journey a few days ago. I am interested in learning more about rental properties. 

I was wondering what advice you guys could give me on just starting as a real estate investor? Where should my focus be in these next few weeks?  

[Glen Wiley]

Make a habit of reading and watching real estate investment resources every day. Immerse yourself in self education. Even after a couple of decades of real estate investing I still watch at least 2 you tube videos every day and read at least 2 articles on real estate topics daily.

[Brian Penter]

Congrats on getting started! I wish I had started learning in college. The first step is building up some education- read books, listen to podcasts, watch YT videos, etc. The book that inspires a lot of people is Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but the bookstore on here has a lot of good ones. 

If you can get an internship with someone in the business either while you're in school or back home for the summer, that'd be a great way to start and build up some experience. 

[Ray Hage]

My advice to you is see if you can get some kind of internship or assistant type job with a property management company. I believe this is the toughest part of RE because you will be dealing with all types of problems and personalities. You will develop some skills that will be great when you start out as a landlord. Also, on your own, you'll want to learn how to crunch numbers in RE to understand the financials of a market, neighborhood and particular property. Of course, you're a full time student but you can dedicate a few hours a week to crunching numbers and learning about different loan types at the minimum.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Michael Leccese:

Welcome to the BiggerPockets forums!

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 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.

[Mohammed Rahman]

Hey @Michael Leccese - I recommend 2 things that cost little to nothing: 

1. Books, books, and more books. This will help you learn more about the ins & outs without having to put your money out in the street and possibly lose it. 

2. Attend a local real estate event every couple of months. It will give you exposure to others in the same industry and give you a chance to get out of your comfort zone. I've always left a networking event having learnt something new. 

[Suzanne Player]

There are several good real estate meetups on Long Island, feel free to message me (they don't let you do anything resembling advertising on this forum unless its in the Real Estate Classifieds / Events & Happenings page at:  https://www.biggerpockets.com/...    where you can also find a lot of them.  There is a wide range of ages, from recent high school graduate to people planning their retirement.  There are experienced investors willing to help with other people's questions because they were beginners once too.  A lot of info gets shared that you typically won't come accross in books or online resources (although schooling yourself with those is essential).

You're probably already listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast, they do an excellent job of explaining basic concepts in an entertaining way.  There are some pretty inspiring stories from the guests as well.

I also agree with @Nathan Gesner that it's absolutely necessary to practice financial self-discipline and save as much as possible.  If you can't control your spending, it's not feasible to be an investor.  But I suspect you are already of that mindset if you're on this forum at all.