What should I do to start investing in real estate with no experience?

[Luis Gutierrez]

Hello everyone! I'm 21 years old and I want to start investing in real estate. The problem is I work a part time job and only make about $1,100 a month, which is nothing! It will take me forever to save for a down payment for a house. So I thought on becoming a police officer in the meantime, they make about $50,000 a year in my area. I think I have a chance on saving money a whole lot faster. But I will have to wait 2-3 years to come up with a good $20,000-$25,000 down payment. What should I do?? Become a police officer and save as much money as possible? Or are there more options out there for me right now as a 21 year old to start investing, besides bank loans? Basically my goal is to buy a house with the down payment, and then put it for rent asap, so the house can pay itself from tenants in the long run.

[Japheth Grimm]

The best advice is the same that's been going around for years. That is, find a local REIA, network with investors, and find those who are willing to mentor you or at least keep in touch on a regular basis. Here's a list of REIAs to reference:

http://www.mynationalreia.com/clubportal/795files/Directory.cfm?clubID=795&statevalue=TX

When finding mentors, make sure they have a good reputation within the REIA and other networks. If someone wants you to pay them for mentoring, find someone else. For an investor to be willing to help you learn, you've got to make it worth their while. Some people are surprised that this means you "work for free", but what's really going on is you're getting a free education through experience.

For instance, right now I've got a guy who is your age that is more or less our shadow. This guy has been working with my team and a few other investors for the past two months, learning as much as he can. Our deal with him is that we give him access to our Google calendar and if he wants to come with, he tells us at least a day in advance and shows up two hours ahead of time. If things start in the morning, we'll pick him up and he'll spend the entire day with us. Most of the time he does busy work and observes, but lately he's been participating hands on in some of our deals.

Since he's been busting his butt with us (not for us), other investors have seen his work ethic. Because of this, he's gained access to more resources for free; the same resources that other people are paying for (ie: services, workshops, classes, field training, webinars, books, etc.). When he hears about an event, he finds out who's hosting and offers to show up early, make coffee, direct traffic, greet people, distribute materials, or whatever busy work they don't want to do. Most of the time, people are paying money to attend. These hosts aren't paying him to work the event, but he's not paying to be there either. It can make for a long day but, for him, the educational and networking opportunities are becoming endless.

This coming week, we'll be working out some details concerning him partnering with my team on his first few wholesale deals using our leads and marketing. Even though we're going to split the payout, he's still going to get a nice check from putting what he's learned to work for him. Since he's already proved that he can perform to potential end buyers, not to mention he's well aware of what they want in the first place, he should have no problem turning deals. Heck, he's already been told by some investors that once he gets some deals down, he'll have access to their private lending money. Not bad!

Bottom line: Gaining access to education, mentoring, and other people's money is the way to go if you're going get serious about real estate investing. All it's going to cost you is a lot of time and a bunch of elbow grease at first, but the payout is huge if you're consistent.