New Member from NJ - First Timers

[John Stuart]

Hello everyone, my name is John. I live with my wife in our own home and we both have full time jobs that take up a 12 hours of our day. Ideally, I would like to get into real estate investing (buying/renting multifamily, flipping). We have little experience other than purchasing our own home and helping someone else. We do not have a lot of money saved up but may be able to put up to $20k towards an investment to get off the ground. We are leaning towards a rental property for many reasons, but would like to learn where some of you successful people started and if you were in similar shoes as ours.

Nice meeting you, thank you in advance.

[Account Closed]

Hi @John Stuart,

I am just starting myself in New Jersey and I have done it through Partnering with current investors on projects. This has helped me get started when I didn't have any money my self. I met these people through networking here on Bigger Pockets and going to the SJREIA. Their site is SJREIA.org. 

I work with a lot of first time investors and the main way we get them started is by figuring out what their goals are in this business. Do they want to retire, make it a business, do it for a hobby, etc. Once we know this we move on to how aggressive they may have to be in order to achieve their goal. That will dictate what they might need to do to get started. EX: Partner, Lend privately first, Buy a property a year, etc

Connections are key  when getting started, so reach out to anyone actively doing what you want to do in real estate and meet up with them, pick their brain. The more people you meet the more doors will open like @Danielle Fattizzi said. 

I would more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to send me a PM to discuss meeting up.

Talk soon,

William Lees Jr