Who do I talk to first?

[Oscar Martinez]

Hi BP,

I'm planning on buying my first property by the end of the year and I've been educating myself in all thing REI for about 2 months now.

I'd like to get things moving along but I'm not sure who to talk to first. Financial Planner, CPA, Real Estate Agent, Real Estate Lawyer... Who should I go to first to start investing?

[Stephanie Dupuis]

If I had it to do over again, I'd...

1. Get referrals from my local REI and local BP members of the following (to start with): lender, RE Agent, RE Atty, CPA.

2. Banker/Lender - Do you need a lender? If so, I'd get pre-approved/qualified. Get your loan set up.

3. Agent - then start looking for properties.

4. Once you lock into a property, you have done your homework in step #1 - you have some referrals of attys. and CPAs, etc. You can then meet with them with a real life situation (I have this specific property, blah, blah, blah...) - they'll take you more seriously and you'll be able to measure their professional abilities better.

It may be good to pre-consult with a CPA (depending on the RE investing you plan to do) to see if there's an entity you ought to have set up ahead of time. This I don't know and is beyond my knowledge base. I buy/hold, so this isn't something that has affected me. Hopefully, someone else will speak on this.