Hi everyone, just joined BP and it looks great, my question is: What is the easiest, fastest and cheapest ways to get started in REI?

[Nick Stango]

I am a home improvements specialist/contractor and I've been wanting to get into REI for years but never seem to get started the right way. I'm not sure if it's a lack of startup money or if I just don't know how to get started. My wife and I are getting ready to take classes for our PA/NJ RE licenses in April, I also want to get my inspectors and appraisers licenses. I feel this will give me some great tools and contacts to help us get started in our REI ventures.

Recently I've been looking at rundown houses in Trenton NJ for under $40k and thought this may be the least expensive way to get started. Any advise on how to start would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Nick

[Ellis San Jose]

@Nick Stango 

I applaud you for being direct and to the point.

The wholesaling formula is pretty straight forward.

1) Communicate with a lot of sellers who are ready, willing and able to sell a propert(ies) to you at a significant discount.( Farm list)

2) Put it under contract with enough profit margin for what your investors want and still have enough spread for you to make the profit you want. 

3) Sell your contracts to ready, willing and able buyers ( Buyers list)

4) Cash checks

rinse and repeat steps 1-4.

Easy? Look on the MLS for properties

Fast? Buy the property off the MLS with what you think has the most possible profit and price you can afford.

Cheap? Google free real estate wholesaling contract. Cut and paste the contracts from the Internet that you like and hope that you don't do anything foolish or illegal that may harm you later.

Easy, fast, and cheap vs. Effective, sustainable, profitable, and delivers the optimal return on your time, skill, and money.

One of my favorite Warren Buffett quotes, "Price is what you pay, value is what you receive".

The investors I know that are most successful and who I most want to emulate, challenge me to focus on asking more powerful questions that will likely lead to more powerful answers.

Here are some resources and areas of study that I have found to be extremely valuable.

1) Public libraries & especially law libraries (nudge nudge wink wink) contract law, real estate cases and guide books that are state specific.

2) Understanding title 

3) Public record searching

4) Studying marketing and human behavior: 

What influences people to say yes or no? What causes people to take or not take certain actions? (Why would someone sell me an asset at a deep discount?)

5) Studying the laws of money:

Why do some people get rich, then go broke?

Why are some people rich but miserable?

Why are some people always broke?

Why do some people become wealthy and stay that way?

Best of luck on your journey,