Building connections and experience

[Tim Swedberg]

Hey! I recently changed my career to work in construction - specifically renovation. I am also paying off my debt so that I will be in a good position to invest in the future (my career change will also help a lot, I hope.) But that leaves me very poor at the moment while I pay off the high interest debt.

I really just enjoy working on fixing up homes and want to speed up paying off debt by being part of deals in my time off. 

So here are my questions:

1. Would it be better to just bid on projects and have people pay you for the work you do, or to try and become a partner on a deal through contributing the labor for remodel/renovation? (I also understand most  people would want me to throw in some of my own money so I would have "skin in the game," so this may not even be an option.)

2. What are some good ways to get experience in real estate investing in person? I volunteered at the Habitat for Humanity to get shorten my learning curve with construction, I was wondering if there are people/organizations that I could be affiliated with that would be able to offer me lots of experience. Did any of you find ways to build experience before your first deal, and how?

thanks for the time! Mostly just want to utilize my time and resources as much as possible! Really love working construction, but the smaller income has made it slow work to get into a good position financially (though it did teach me how to budget, haha.) 

Happy Thursday!

Tim