Starting A Career In Real Estate?

[John Francis]

Hi everyone,

I am new here and this is my first post. I have always had a strong interest in real estate, mainly commercial and multi-family. I have zero experience in real-estate, other than being a renter myself. So I'm basically starting at zero. At this point, I think that it might make sense to consider a career in real estate so I can begin learning about the industry, but I have no clue where to start. So here's my question.

Where does someone who's interested commercial or multi-family real estate start their career with no prior experience? How can I break into the field? A little about me:

- I'm 28 years old and a Product Manager a Philly tech startup..(this means that I'm not making great money). 

- I have a strong marketing, sales, and technology background. I was also self employed for 2.5 years, between the ages of 25-28.

- My degree is a B.A. in Political Science. So I don't have any related education that I am aware about.  

- I'm located in the Philadelphia area

For fun, I like to drive around local towns and guess the prices of commercial and residential real-estate, then look the prices up. I know that real estate is something that I could get extremely passionate about and although I don't have direct experience, I know that my diverse background can probably help me. 

Investing in deals isn't really an option for me right now. I think at this point getting an entry level job might be best, even if that means cleaning the bathrooms at a local real-estate office.

Any advice on how to get started?

Thanks

[David Bokman]

You seem like an educated guy so my advice to you would be to too much more research then you have already done so that you can decided what kind of real estate investing you want to do.  Being a real estate investor is just a generic term people use...do you want to be a landlord, flipper, wholesaler?  If your looking to become a real estate agent then start studying for your license. You need to narrow down what you want and are able to do! Cleaning bathrooms isn't gonna get you far.....people are looking for others to bring them value...that offers none!

I would suggest going to your local REIA meetings, they can all be found on meetup.com and start networking and learning with other local's.

PS. the way I got started was just to start......so many people are "thinking" of starting and never do. You gotta get your feet wet in order to see if this is something you can or can not do.

Just my 2 cents.....