Newbie looking to learn!

[Tom Manna]

Hey all! I recently jumped on biggerpockets and bought pro yesterday. Im dying to learn as much as I can. I've been doing a marathon of the podcasts and bought about 10 of the most popular books. I'm taking the real estate course next week to get my license, super excited! Im 30 and live in Boston, full time Union electrician. I've have had a passion for real estate for a long time, I just recently decided it's time to start. I want to do a combination of flipping houses and building a good multi family rental portfolio. Although I'm not sure if Boston is a good place to start due to the high prices. Im taking the time to map my road to achieve my goals. I'm passionate and extremely driven. Thanks biggerpockets for the endless excellent information

[Peter MacKercher]

@Tom MannaGreat to have you here, your background will be something useful to you as you move forward with investing, and, bonus for us, you'll get to throw in advice for other people on here. For that reason I'd encourage you to stay active and keep posting on the forums, since we're a collection of people with different strengths and weaknesses, so it's always great to hear from a bunch of people.

Keep up the good work, and good luck on your license. Sounds like you've set yourself a fast pace for learning, but don't be shy about slowing down to really piece through things now and then. You can read widely or read one book intensely, but it's hard to do both all the time. 

Here's my boilerplate welcome guide, though you've clearly already done at least some of it already you might find something here you missed:

1. New to BP? http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere

2. Check out BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginner's Guide - A fantastic free book that walks through many of the key topics of real estate investing.

3. Check out the free BiggerPockets Podcast, a weekly podcast with interviews and a ton of great advice. And you get the benefit of having over 100 past ones to catch up on.

4. Develop your own business strategy -- don’t just be a jack-of-all-trades (even though I am).

5. Grow your business by developing your business plan. Remember: there is a difference between goals and a plan. http://www.biggerpockets.com/files

6. Locate and attend several different local REIAs as they’re great opportunities to network and meet wholesalers, lenders, and contractors.7. Stay away from the “guru” sales-pitch events. They rarely increase your investment knowledge but always empty your wallet!

8. Spend some time every day on BiggerPockets connecting with colleagues, perusing blogs and videos, and engaging with others on the forums:http://www.biggerpockets.com/meet

9. Set yourself up to receive free alerts to be notified of subjects that interest you: http://www.biggerpockets.com/alerts

Stay hungry and stay active here, cheers!