Best REI strategies for a beginner

[Jeremy Salo]

Hey all, I am looking for advice on which REI strategies I should be considering and which are just a waste of time. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

[Ronald Allen Barney]

The main differentiator for a beginner strategy is how handy you are and how much time you can put into each venture.  If you are very handy and have generous amounts of time to put in, a few flips can be a good way to get immersed in the process of evaluating structures, offers and negotiations, contract to close, and rehab.  It carves a few other investment variables out of the picture and allows you to focus on the experience you're building up.  From flips you can move to BRRRRs and apply what you already know from your flipping experience and add the new dimensions of learning the rental and property management side of investing.

If you're not handy (no shame in that) or don't have much time on your hands, it may be best to stick to turn-key buy and hold investments in single family, and hiring out property management. Do good investment math to make sure they cash flow. I specified single family because they are a dime a dozen, and in any MLS there should be good diamonds in the rough out there outside the mainstream of shiny objects being bid up above asking by desperate buyers (sometimes mispitched in listing to the wrong category by an idiot listing agent, which a good buyer agent can find and offer on as the only offer they've gotten in the past month!) MFH are much harder to find in this market and "house hacking" is such a fad now almost everyone I know is looking for one. As you gain experience and are able to network more broadly in the RE world, you will come across more and more opportunities in the MFH space and small apartment complexes. That will be the next level to shoot for which the networking will make more achievable.