How to know when you are ready to invest

[Alex Keedy]

Hi BP community,

I recently turned 40 and my mid-life crisis seems to be manifesting as a desire to start investing in real estate. I have no prior experience in this arena, other than buying my house 6 years ago. For the past couple of weeks, I have been scarfing down as much education as I can and am really enjoying learning about real estate.

My question is: when do you consider someone 'ready' to invest in their first property? I think I would be foolish to just jump in now because there is so much that I don't know, and more importantly, I don't know what I don't know.  But the flip side is that I could see myself easily getting trapped in a long/endless loop of more and more education and analysis paralysis. I know some things can only be learned with real-world experience and at some point, I will need to take a leap of faith and purchase while venturing outside of my comfort zone.

I'm sure this will depend on many factors, but what concepts do you think are critical for a new investor to understand. The strategy and niche that resonate with me are buy-and-hold of small multifamily rental properties (at least to start).

Thanks in advance!

Alex