New Member from San Francisco, originally from Rochester NY

[Adam Witkop]

Hi All,

My name is Adam Witkop, and I'm brand new to real estate investing.  I'm originally from Rochester NY, but currently live in San Francsico.  I rent right now, but am thinking about buying in the Bay Area, or possibly investing in a few single family homes in the Rochester NY area - maybe student housing?  I work at Shell Oil as an engineer, and attend the part time business school program at UC Berkeley (Haas).  I don't mind my job, but eventually, I'd like to be free of the corporate life and do my own thing - I've heard real estate is a good place to start!

I've picked up a few books (The millionaire real estate investor, building wealth one house at a time, and Hold: how to find, buy and rent houses), but am only halfway through the millionaire real estate investor - I started last week, cut me some slack!

I have some savings, but business school and a new baby are taking a sizable chunk of my income.  I'm open to any suggestions on how and where to start investing, preferably without sizable front capital requirements.  As far as I can tell, I'm interested in buy and hold single family homes in fairly decent condition (I'm not particularly handy)

Thanks - hope to hear from you!!

Adam

[Ryan Landis]

@Adam Witkop welcome! And Go Bears!

You are off to a great start - take the time to read books like The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, Rich Dad Poor Dad, etc. There is a pretty great list on BP @Brandon Turner has put together.

Also, listen to the podcasts - Haas is a great business school (my alma mater) but the podcasts are an MBA in real estate. Just listen and right down the things that make no sense at all, then hop on BP and ask away/search and you will be surprised how quickly you will start putting all of the pieces together.