Newbie from Albany, New York

[Lukas Katko]

Hello BP community,

My name is Lukas Katko. I'm an engineering student at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY POLY for them locals), soon beginning my sophomore year. I'm not sure how I came upon this website, it must have been a week or so ago while I was looking for real estate investment education outlets. I'd been reading some books about real estate up to that point, notably "Making Money in Real Estate" and "The ABCs of Real Estate Investing". If anyone has read these books, especially "Making Money...", you'll know Dolf De Roos likes to make investing sound very laid back and simple. This raised my suspicions and Google searching led me here.

Since then, I've been reading loads of articles on anything from commercial acquisition to wholesaling vs. fix and flip. However, I've mostly been focused on the buy and hold strategy just because of the attractiveness of monthly cash flow less vacancy. Looking around at my market, I've found some deals that look very attractive, but I honestly have a fear of jumping in simply due to inexperience (in addition to the fact that I have no capital). 

I guess the primary reason I made an account is just to have an outlet from where I can ask questions and get answers from people that have been down this road before, and thus learn from their mistakes rather than making my own (Though personally I am willing to make mistakes, as I find them to be the most valuable learning experiences).

I'll apologize in advance if I don't respond quickly to any replies, I'm travelling a bit today and might not be able to get back to you before tomorrow.

Thank you for your time and (potential) responses,

Lukas Katko