Hello from central Illinois

[Dustin Becker]

Hello everyone, my name is Dustin, I am 30 years old and I am from Central Illinois. My occupation right now and for the past 6 years has been a photographer. To be honest, I have lost my passion and am burned out with photography. I have been for the past year thinking to myself what I would like to do for a new career if I decided to dissolve my business, and what keeps coming back to me is investing, especially in real estate.

I have virtually no experience in real estate investing, I have been immersing myself in books, and websites, and now BiggerPockets. I am trying to learn as much information as possible before I step out and actually do it.

I am not even for sure yet which areas I would or should focus on, whether certain ones are better for beginners? If anybody can steer me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated.

I have contacts in the real estate markets as welll as potential private money lenders who I could reach out to, although they have no idea that I am even considering this career at this point. I have been afraid of these people rejecting me and my ideas because I have no experience. But I realize now you have to start somewhere.

Anyway, if there is any good information out for beginners I would love to know about it.
Thank you all for reading my rambling.