I have one year before I come into money I can use to begin a real estate investment business. I am leaning to multi-family rental properties but that may be because I don't know about much else. Or I like the idea of fix and rent multi and single family homes.
What should I do this next 12 months to prepare myself for starting this investment business? Book suggestions, contacts, websites, seminars, youtube video suggestions are all appreciated.
Hello and welcome to BP. Two words for you: Keep Learning. By this, I mean:
1. Go to open house for properties that are for sale in your area and get to know two things: a. what to look for in houses in general (which systems run in the house and which one can cost more in maintenance than another.... b. get to know realtors. Depending on how you connect with each, share your goal and see how each responds. Out of those that you will meet there is a chance that you will click with one of them.
2. Meet with more than 1 mortgage broker if you have not done so. The goal here is to understand from their side of the story all the dots and the T's that you need to cross when it is time to purchase your first property. You will also learn about the different types and loan programs available to you
3. Understand tax and management implications of real estate investing. This is by far my favorite part. For this I recommend reading a lot of articles or books. Look for Brandon Turner's 2 books on finding and managing property. In terms of tax book, you can get the Nolo's Every Landlord Tax Deduction book
4. keep Learning every single topic related to your goal: I spent almost a year reading articles every day to help me understand more about investing in real estate so that my fear can be dissipated when it is time to act.