How to Work a Full-Time Job and Start Investing

[Aaron Ray]

So, I really want to get involved in real estate investing, preferably buy and holds, but I love my job. What are some things I can do to, at minimum, start getting my foot in the door? I just graduated college this past May an an engineer, so I don't have a whole lot of extra cash to buy a house yet... What are some ideas? Through the BiggerPockets podcasts, I've heard about seller financing, and financing houses with other peoples money, but I feel like that'd be a little difficult as I have no track record. So please, if you have anything to add, I'd love to hear it, even if you told me to just save 800 bucks a month or something until I had about 10 grand for a down payment.

[Ryan Detig]

@Aaron Ray  Well done getting started this early.  I am also an engineer but did not get started for 7 years out of college.  To answer your questions, I think the top 3 things you need to do are as follows.

1. Get educated.  Read all you can about the type of real estate investing you want to do.  Learn the rental market in your area. For 6 months I looked online at rentals that came on the market and put them in a spreadsheet so I could reference their location, size, and cost later when I wanted to see how much a house would rent for.

2. Build a network.  Find a local real estate investment group and attend regularly.  Build relationships with the people that are doing what you want to do and build relationships with wholesalers.  Wholesalers never have enough buyers so make sure you are specific as to what you want to buy and let them know that. 

3. Get your financing in place ahead of time.  Talk to banks and get pre approved so your wholesaler will know you are serious.

4.  Just do it.  Don't get caught in analysis paralysis.  Do your research, set a educated minimum requirement for a deal and when that first one comes along buy it and be ready to learn more.  

Let me know if you have any other questions and I will be more than willing to help.  Also I will shamelessly plug my recent post about what I have done in my first 8 months here as there are other tips in that and hopefully it will help encourage you to get started.