Am I headed in the right direction???

[Carlos Pringle]

Over the past few months i've spent a long amount of time pouring over blogs, forums and books related to real estate investing. In as much, i've come to the conclusion that real-estate investing is probably one of the most solid investing methods to date, and now I have a problem. Well, I wouldn't honestly call it a problem but I need some much needed direction and guidance. I would like to get into real-estate with-in a couple of months-almost a 5 month timeframe here, and I figured the best way to get my feet wet would be to obtain a real-estate liscense. ?

Right now, I really don't have much capital and my debt to income ratio is horrible-which would make applying for and obtaining home loans next to impossible. That is... unless I could win the lotto and could show the bank $100,000 in my account, which probably won't happen either. On the otherhand, I figured that that lisencse would enable me to work directly with the proffesionals, and understand the buisness alittle more. At this point, I feel the best way for me to get anywhere would be in selling homes first and taking commission from the sale as a real estate agent.

What are your thoughts? Do you think this is the best way for a person to get started in real-estate? If you do, what advice could you give to help a young person like myself-or others? More importantly, what were your experiences like? What types of obstacles did you face, and how did you overcome them? I'd like to hear your wisdom, so that I myself can be succesful, and avoid any major pitfalls in the future!