Questions to ask local experienced investor

[Eric F.]

Long story short. A successful local investor (buy and hold, also a broker for 30 years, runs a small real estate investment company now) taught a creative real estate class here in Raleigh recently and offered anyone a chance to meet with him for an hour and pick his brain. I am of course taking him up on it, this Wednesday. He said to bring a rough idea of what I want to do and some questions.

My goals are to accumulate buy and hold properties to generate passive income, enough to live off in 10 years if I desire. At first I plan on being very hands on, but in the long run I'd like to move to more passive with property management so I can travel and volunteer my time. In addition, I am interested in other types of real estate investing, mainly rehabbing. My plan starts with buying a 2-4 multifamily using a FHA loan and owner occupying, and from there I hope to slowly build up a portfolio using traditional and creative ways, like subject 2, if possible.

Questions include:
*What areas of town should I look into?
*If you were starting today, with my end in mind, what would you do, who would you meet with, and so forth?
*How realistic does my plan seem?
*If real estate starts working out, should I look into becoming a broker (and yes I know this is discussed in 4,000 BP threads haha)
*One of my plans is to send yellow letters to a bunch of absentee owned multi families in town, I plan on asking his advice on this.
*Where do you see Raleigh's market going?

and the most important one (in my opinion): Is there anything I can do to help you or someone else in exchange for knowledge and instruction?

Am I missing anything super obvious? I only have an hour and do not want to waste his time.

Thanks everyone!

[Joel Owens]

Hi Eric,

Your money to start is a big one. It takes money to get a loan and purchase and pay all of your inspection and closing costs. You also need reserves to get started as a buffer.

So when someone says they want to do something my question is usually " How much money do you have today and how much do you expect to have to invest from the future from your job, business, etc.?"

From that you can plan out and project a plan of action.