Looking for step 0

[Kyle Jepson]

Hello BiggerPockets!

I think a lot of people probably come here looking for the first step in real estate investing, but I'm actually looking for the step just before that. I've had a nagging curiosity about real estate investing for probably a decade now, but I just never felt stable enough to even think about getting started. Now I'm nearing 30, have a wife and a kid and a couple of degrees, and a good steady job, and I'm starting to feel a very deep need to find a source of long-term financial stability. Since real estate has always been my secret fancy, here I am.

But here's the deal--I know all too well I'm a flavor-of-the-month sort of guy. Before I go frolicking through the MLS listings, I need to establish some benchmark to measure my seriousness. I don't want to (for example) by a dilapidated house that I'm convinced I'll fix up and resell and then end up spending the rest of my life living with a leaky roof because I never got around to buying roofing nails.

So my theory is that, if I can muster the commitment to get through, say, 5 thick books on real estate investing--if I don't give up and get board halfway through--well, that's a pretty good sign. I live in Boston, home of one of the best public library systems in America, so I'm pretty sure I can get my hands on any book worth reading, but I have no idea what books are worth reading.

Any recommendations for excellent but daunting real estate investing books to test my mettle? Or am I totally misguided and there's some better way to make sure I'm not just trying to jump into something that I won't follow through with? I guess books 1 and 2 should be the eBooks that BiggerPockets just sent me--any advice after that?

Thanks!