New to REI, Where do I begin!?

Question

Me and my wife have 9-5s, with poor credit and considerable debt so I understand Flipping and buying/holding is out of the picture....for now. Want to begin Wholesaling in the Tucson area, looking for some guidance! What advice would you give someone that wants to jump in?

Thanks in Advance!

Nathan Gesner · Answer

1. Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free). It will familiarize you with the basic terminology and benefits. Then you can read a more in-depth book like The Book On Rental Property Investing by @Brandon Turneror The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing by Spencer Strauss.

2. Get your finances in order. Get rid of debt, build a budget, and save. The idea that you can build wealth without putting any money into it is a recipe for disaster and the sales pitch of gurus trying to steal your money. A wise investor will not try to get rich quick with shortcuts. If you can't keep control your finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing. Check out my personal favorite, Set For Life by @Scott Trench , or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

3. As you read these books, watch the biggerpockets podcasts. This will help clarify and reinforce what you are reading. You can hear real-world examples of how others have built their investment portfolio and (hopefully) learn to avoid their mistakes.

4. Now you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them. Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books for this or you can learn by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum. There is a handy search bar in the upper right that makes it easy to find previous discussions, blogs, podcasts, and other resources. Biggerpockets also has a calculator you can use to analyze deals and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy. If you consistently analyze properties, it will be much easier to recognize a good deal when it shows up.

5. Jump in! Far too many get stuck in the "paralysis by analysis" stage, thinking they just don't know enough to get started. The truth is, you could read 100 books and still not know enough because certain things need to be learned through trial-and-error. You don't need to know everything to get started; you just need a foundation to build on and the rest will come through experience and then refining your education.

You can build a basic understanding of investing in 3-6 months. How long it takes to be financially ready is different for everyone. Once you're ready, create a goal (e.g. "I will buy at least one single-family home, duplex, triplex, or fourplex before the end of 2019") and then do it. Real estate investing is a pretty forgiving world and the average person can still make money even with some pretty big mistakes.

Justin Moore · Answer

@Michael Krotchie i just looked up meeting times, I’ll definitely attend one. Just so much information, don’t know where to begin!

Ian Walsh · Answer

Learn your market and learn to market.  Local real estate networking events are great.

Costin I. · Answer

@Justin Moore - Here is my "starting up" collection:Read ideal-vs-desperate-investor (http://greeneincome.com/index.php/2018/10/29/ideal-vs-desperate-investor/)Read Dave Ramsey book "The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness." and complete the baby steps there.Read Scott Trench’s book “Set for Life.”Finish the school and get your degree - you'll need it later, especially if it's business management.Get a job first where you have W2 income. Save 50 percent after tax income. Find deals in your market. Buy at discounted prices. Rehab. Rent. Refinance. Repeat.Work slave job with W-2 documentation for 2 years to gain favor with banks. Freddy/Fannie conventional loans want to see those 2 years. Keep same job no matter how crappy. It's only a stepping stone to break free.While you are slaving, eat ramen, roommate up or live in trailer, avoid Starbucks and tuck every dollar you can squeeze out into a bank account. need 20% down and money for materials. so for 80K home (trashed), you will want 35K banked to get started, just a rough idea.Then, get pre-approved. Buy property. Buy another and another until you have enough equity to refinance one for large amount of cash. Take cash and start BRRRRR process (read up all you can on BRRRRR). Give boss notice. (sorry about all the school time you invested). Your free. Done.Find a mentor to help with the process.Doing an internship with someone that is serious about their business, and then making sure that you're just as serious about their business as they are, is an awesome way to gain invaluable experience and support for yourself in the long run.Intern with a flipper. Intern with a wholesaler. Intern with Rental Investor. Then decide what you want to do long term. You have a long journey ahead.Aggressively save money and buy a Multifamily 2-4 units with 3.5% FHA loan and house hack. Find a duplex/triplex that needs a little work, live in one unit rent out the rest. Raise the rents to market values and rehab to force equity and sell in 2 years to avoid capital gains. If you decide to keep the property you can refinance into a conventional loan and hopefully you have enough equity to eliminate the PMI/MIP. Then move out and repeat the process. Repeat. Do this four or five times and you'll never have to work again if you choose. [Beware = https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/house-hacking-drawbacks/]I would look for a 2-4 unit too house hack. You can get into these with 3.5% down for an owner occupied FHA loan. Great way to get started FHA makes sure its a cash flowing deal before they allow you to buy. And house hacking allows you to make a little off the property, and seriously subsidize your rent. And lastly, you gotta live like a college kid. Rent out rooms, go the cheap route. Having those cheap expenses will really catapult you forward financially!Income from RE investing is slow and boring (in a good way). The RE investing that makes fast money is not really “investing” - it’s a self-employed RE business. For example, flipping, deal finding, wholesaling, syndicating.Boosting your credit score is the no-brainer investment. Go on My Fico and learn the credit hacks. Do them!!![Biggerpockets] is notorious for the no and no money down niche, but you really need to have a good financial runway prior to investing otherwise you will lose your bottom when it goes sideways.Read all the usual books. But to be honest with you, If you do not learn some construction skills, your progress will be a lot slower as contractors will be raking in the majority of your profits.Get a pro account on this site so you can access the PRO only blogs and avoid all the goofy stuff that can confuse you sometimes.Take NO advice from salesmen such as realtors/brokers. Not because they are wrong, but because they are salesmen.Take NO advice from anyone who does not own more real estate than you do. Why chance it.Just keep reading, saving, researching your target area. Know the rents! Know the values.Do all this and you'll be on a very good path. Just remember, there are no secrets and shortcuts in real estate investing, just slow and steady progress. You want fast, you are closer to speculating than investing and your risk skyrockets​."Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is power, but also a burden, leading to analysis paralysis. The cure to both - the 4 ions: education, action, progress(ion), not perfection".Learn to use BP to its whole potential:Subscribe to BP blog and podcasts and start reading posts and listening to their podcasts collection.Find and connect with other BP members that are in your area: http://www.biggerpockets.com/m...Set up keyword alerts to be notified of the topics that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/a...Read Beginner’s Guide: Real-estate-investing (http://www.biggerpockets.com/real-estate-investing) + Actionable-steps-to- reach-investing-goals (https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/12/17/actionable-steps-reach-investing-goals)You can find a glossary of some acronyms here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...You might also want to read: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide - https://assets2.biggerpockets.......actually the entire section on Guides - https://www.biggerpockets.com/...BP has a whole section dedicated to education and starting up - https://www.biggerpockets.com/...Get busy with the entire Education section on BP:property-types (https://www.biggerpockets.com/hubs/property-types)finance (https://www.biggerpockets.com/hubs/finance)strategy (https://www.biggerpockets.com/hubs/strategy)analyze-deals (https://www.biggerpockets.com/hubs/finding-deals/analyze-deals)property-management (https://www.biggerpockets.com/hubs/property-management) (including TENANTS MAINTENANCE)business-operations (https://www.biggerpockets.com/hubs/business-operations) (and the sub section on REAL ESTATE MARKETING TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY TAXES & ACCOUNTING LEGAL TEAM)One way or another you will pay your "real estate tuition" - either in time, effort or money. My suggestion - better in time and effort, and money (through the mistakes you going to make), than paying a guru.Between BP and books and all the other podcasts and blogs available for free, you shouldn't need any paid training - don't fall for that. Just find a good mentor to shadow, someone willing to impart from his/her experience, take them to lunch and make yourself useful to them, and they will teach you.Here some recent articles good for starters:- one to raise you up: 3-important-questions-starting-investing-real-estate https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- one to bring you back down to earth: dont-just-dabble-in-real-estate-investing https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- one in the middle: cheap-free-steps-today-pro https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- 10-lethal-mistakes-avoid-real-estate-investment https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- telltale-signs-youre-not-ready-to-invest https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- vital-importance-mentor https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- get-ready-to-invest https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- get-your-head-in-the-game https://royallegalsolutions.co...You might want to read and follow these threads:advice-to-your-20-year-old-self https://www.biggerpockets.com/...financial-advise-for-getting-started https://www.biggerpockets.com/...how-to-prepare-for-a-career-as-a-flipper https://www.biggerpockets.com/...new-to-wholesale-real-estate https://www.biggerpockets.com/...what-is-the-best-re-related-9-to-5-job https://www.biggerpockets.com/...Bonus for the weekend, my collection for starters (read the comments too, and then if you like the author, go check out what else they wrote):- stages-of-investing https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- newbies-learn-real-estate-investing https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- 5-ways-to-know-youre-not-ready-to-invest https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- ideal-vs-desperate-investor https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- how-much-to-offer-property https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- hazardous-attitudes-of-investors https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- 21-traits-scammy-real-estate-investment-guru https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- youre-not-cut-out-to-be-real-estate-investor https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- questions-new-investors-should-ask https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- real-estate-books-beginner-investors  https://www.biggerpockets.com/...- what-separates-those-who-succeed-from-those-who-fail https://www.biggerpockets.com/...If that's not enough, ping me and I'll give you a whole collection of blogs and podcasts to follow.Bonus 2: 1) Read at least one hour per day every single day.2) Remember the quote by Jim Rohn "You are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with."3) Check for toilet paper before sitting down.

Justin Moore · Answer

@Nathan G. Much appreciated!

Michael Krotchie · Answer

@Justin Moore Attend AZREIA meetings and network.. Plenty of people to meet, things to learn, and ideas to hear about.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

Start by finding as many investors as you can in the area. Figure out what they are looking for, then go out and find it.

You can still start looking for good deals before you meet investors but knowing what is in demand would sure simplify your job.

New to REI, Where do I begin!?

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