Just starting out (quite literally) need guidance please!

[Chris H.]

Hello everyone, 

I'm extremely new to this and only recently started considering getting into real estate investing. Let me start off by saying that I have zero experience in real estate and I'm miles and miles away from anything actually happening. I'm simply here to learn, research as hopefully get some great tips from everyone on here who has been through it. I'm sure there are a lot of posts like this on here but again I am new to this site and not too sure where to find them. I'm open to literally anything anyone has to say as far as good tips and pointers you feel are important to just starting out. A few things I already have questions on have been outlined below. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help provide your insight and hopefully this is something that changes my life for the best! - Chris 

1) starting out young with really no money saved, I would likely need to go through a lender before I can do any type of deal. I've heard of private investors/lenders, but not sure who to reach or what "normal" terms would even look like if I went this route.  Can someone who has gone through a partner/private investor tell me what the process was like, what terms were agreed to and how it worked out? 

2) it seems like there are so many of you strongly connected and have a presence felt, how big of a role is networking going to play in being successful? any recommendations on how to make the right connections? I'm not sure if being connected to someone on the other side of the country would be beneficial or not? 

3) To try and avoid pitfalls when I am ready to Flip my first property, are there any tips on what to look for when I begin to analyze property? (Pricing, negotiation techniques, established checklists when walking a property, etc?) 

4) Any tips on how you even begin looking for property? what do you look for that makes it a good buy for you?

Once again, I want to be a sponge on here and get as much info as I can to go about this the right way and since there are so many of you on here, I figured it would be a great place to start. Thanks again for your information, expertise and insight into this exciting opportunity! 

Chris 

[James Masotti]

@Chris H.'s book on Investing with No and Low Money Down and lastly you should read this article I found on Dropbox...but cannot for the life of me remember where I found it to credit the source

2) Networking will play a very big role in your success. Sure people have done it without it...but at the end of the day you're going to get referrals from people for something. That's all part of networking. It could be on BP, it could be at your local REI, your banker, CPA, carpenter, mechanic...etc who knows where something will come from. The more you talk about real estate and connect with people the more you will make happen. In the worlds of Thomas Jefferson "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

3) Read J Scott's Book on Flipping Houses. Spend lots of time at Home Depot and Lowe's to analyze material costs. Walk lots of houses putting together proposed budgets on what you think they'd cost to fix up. See answer to #2 and connect with local flippers at your REIA and check out their properties and ask what they've done. Sometimes you can get this for free, there is a guy at SJREIA who charges a small fee but he will walk you through every single aspect of his project...for the fee he charges you get one hell of an education (personally I haven't done it, but I've heard)

4) Start looking on the MLS for sold properties at much less than market value. This gives you a baseline of what things could sell for which are going to only sell to investors. Then you start to understand your pricing. Whenever I found houses I "know" are going to be sold to investors I save them to my favorites in Zillow or Trulia...that way I can see what they sell for both before and after they are flipped. This can really give you an idea of what others are buying for, how much they are putting into their renovations, and ultimately what they can sell them for. As for where to actually find the properties...every market and style is different. Some places you can buy off the MLS, others use direct mail, others wholesalers (if you're lucky to have a good one near you), some go to the auctions, some do all sorts of other things. Lots of options available to you here. I'd again suggest listening to the BiggerPockets Podcast though because you'll get all sorts of ideas and stories from which to draw both inspiration and an action plan