How to get start my First rental property?

[Tony Zhang]

Hi

I'm beginner to the real estate investment. I'd like to know how anyone started their first property? Where did you started? Did you start with single family house or townhouses? In where I'm living, we don't have much options for multiple family. What's the better way to manage property? Should I manage them myself or ask a property manager to help me manage the properties? What pro and con?

Thanks!

[Alan Feldman]

Welcome! There are so many ways to get started in REI. Everyone's path is different. I recommend searching and reading up on a few overviews.

Here is a quick list to get started...

• Watch this video 4 Reasons Why New Real Estate Investors FAIL
• Four Square Method for analyzing deals Calculating Numbers on a Rental Property [Using The Four Square Method!]
• Four Square calculator www.biggerpockets.com/AnalyzeRentalProperty
• Jump on a webinar www.biggerpockets.com/webinar
  
• Listen to podcast www.biggerpockets.com/podcast
  
• Run deal analysis www.biggerpockets.com/calc

Don’t give up, real estate is profitable, but also frustrating at times, learn from other people's mistakes.

[Jaron Walling]

@Tony Zhang I'd think backwards and figure what type of investor you want to be. Your post feels without direction which is how I felt when I started. What are you strengths and weaknesses? Use your strengths to jump start your REI journey. Focus on the neighborhood(s) you want to invest in and find what is working; SFR, townhouse, multi-family, it doesn't matter. There is always a type and price point that makes a property a good DEAL.

Learn what a good DEAL looks like because that's an important step. If you can't buy below retail value you're wasting time. 

[Nathan Gesner]

Learn how to analyze a deal and then buy something you can afford while maintaining a reserve emergency fund. You can focus on refining your knowledge as you gain experience.

My first purchase was a townhome for $67,000. I put about $6,000 down. I did not analyze it to see if it was a good deal. It earned $50 more than the mortgage payment which is not technically "cash flow". I never had to put a dime of my own money into it because I saved everything it made and used that to cover improvements. I sold it eight years later and made $70,000.

Real estate is a pretty forgiving investment. Just do it and get it over with.

[Percy Matsunaga]

@Tony Zhang

I started with my 1st property in Hawaii back in 2004. The main thing is make sure you run the #’s and come out to cash flow as much as you can. 
mid you need help with running the #’s there are plenty of books that can tell you what to include. 

I would have a property manager manage it for you in the beginning just so you can get use to the landlord part of the business. 

I’m sure there are going to be a lot of questions during the 1st 2 years. 

[Mike O.]

My wife and I were starting a family and were living in a 2 bedroom town house and needed to upgrade to a single family home. My mom instantly brought up the idea of renting our town house from us and after a few years of collecting rent we decided to buy a place for her parents to rent from us. Almost 10 years later we have 4 rentals and have great tenants (her parents only rented for a little over a year). 

[Adam Martin]

I have known I wanted to get into rentals since highschool, my boss at a swimming pool I worked at owned several and I worked on them on the side as well as for another family after they found out.  I mostly just did cleanup and painting but saw the opportunity and decided this is what I wanted.  My first home I bought in 2011 after college for my wife and I to live in.  After several years and a growing family it was time to move so we decided to buy a new one and rent out the first.  From there we have bought 2 more and intend to get another 7-10 in the next 13 years.