New to Real estate investing(rental property)

[Eli Covarrubia]

Hello fellow real estate investors, i have been reading about real estate investing here and there in the past couple of months. it wasn't till i got a new job about a month ago, where i decided to take real estate investing more seriously for my future self and future family since i am only 20. I recently picked up two books which are Brandon Turners rental property investing and little or no money down book, both have been great so far but i know this is just the beginning on my great real estate journey and i will need to obtain more knowledge.

i have a question that i want to get off my chest and i have been itching to ask, for all my experienced investors and not so experienced investors if you where my age or if you are my age, the information that you know now and situations you have experienced what would YOU do if you where in my shoes to start off?

What advice can you give this future Rental Property business owner?

[Jeff Sechrest]

Since no details were given to income or current situation. I'll start off with a few general bullets.

#1 Save your money for a down payment on a property which will allow you to live in as well as bring in some additional cash for your real estate journey. Duplex or bigger if you can. 

#2 Do not buy a nice... anything. Stay away from cars, trucks, boats... You will have plenty of time for all that later.

#3 Read everything here at BP and read Robert Kiyosaki's book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" this week.

#4 Your credit matters when you start dealing with lenders so be smart about building a good score while keeping your debt to income as low as you can.

#5 Even if you don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey has to say about finances. He does have a wonderful slogan to live by. "If you live like no one else, later you can live like no one else". This basically means be smart, think about your goals for the future, stay out of stupid debt, reference Robert Kiyosaki's book above.

#6 Surround yourself with people doing what you want to be doing. Go stuff envelopes for an active investor, realtor or Broker. 

#7 Research your areas real estate groups. They're meet ups in towns and you'll get to talk about real estate and real estate related topics in person with people doing it. Talk to an agent, they may be able to point you to one.

#8 There's an enormous amount of information out there but remember this key piece of advice. You can move mountains with other peoples money if you know what you're doing BUT CASH WILL ALWAYS BE KING!!!