Baseball Player/Aspiring Real Estate Investor

[Lane A.]

Hey everybody first I would to say thank you for taking the time to help me out. Please don't hesitate to voice your thoughts and opinions they will be greatly appreciated.

I'm 26 years old and a friend of mine reached out to me and asked me if I'd be interested in real estate. I will admit I don't know the first thing about real estate much less banks, taxes and everything that comes with it. He gave me the book "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" and after the first chapter I was hooked. I can't seem to stop researching everything real estate. It's 100% something I know I want to invest in. What's really caught my attention is rental properties and hopefully build from there, although I'm keeping all doors open at the moment. I have a great job and a solid chunk of change saved away to get started on.

Sooooo.... What's makes this a little more difficult for my situation is that I play professional baseball and I'm gone from the months of February-September/October. And being that I've never been a landlord I don't think it would be a great idea for me to jump right into landlording while I'm gone for that much time. I know I could hire a property manager but then again I don't know how all that works either.

One of the biggest questions I would like to ask is how should I go about buying my first property? Pay fully in cash or make a down payment and take out a loan?

I know I can't play baseball forever and I'd like to get some assets, equity and cash flow started while I'm playing. I've watched too many athletes go broke by not investing and not managing their money properly and I don't want that to happen to me. So please feel free to respond with your ideas, tips and all that good stuff. All of them are greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and your willingness to help a rookie out

[Justin R.]

@Lane A. A little counter to what others are advising, but I'm not sure I'd jump into REI in shoes like yours. If you've got something important going on that requires attention to succeed at (like being successful for the limited time you'll be able to play pro ball), there's a very real risk that you'll distract yourself with REI. If you're saving your money and investing it already, the capital will be there later to invest in RE once you've got the time to focus on it.

I say this because I have a 9-5 job I love and have no desire to quit ... and I'm becoming aware that real estate can adversely impact that.  It's a very predictable case of spreading too thin and there's the potential of not being great at either.

Just something to keep in mind as you weigh your options.  Protect the financial golden goose.