New invester looking for information on where to start

[Sean Allen]

Hello BP Community,

I am Sean, and I am as green horned as it can get to real estate investing. I have read the beginners guide to real estate investing, listened to some of the pod casts and trolled through some of the forums and blogs to try and get an idea. I am currently active duty in the Army and have been considering getting into real estate for the last 6 years, but have focused mainly on my military career and never got to investing. However, in about a year my wife and I are going to be looking into getting our first home together and I have discussed with her about starting to invest in real estate at the same time.

What I have so far is, that I am interested in getting 3-5 homes over the next 3-5 years, one being my primary residence. After talking with my wife we are only interested in Single Family Homes and will plan on using the buy and hold method. Since I am in the military and still have around 12 years left before I can retire, the market I am looking at is aimed towards service members. That is about all the foundation that I have laid out thus far. As for the rest I am still a little lost on what I need to do. The main questions that I have are as follows:

What is the best way to monitor the market where I am looking to purchase (Hinesville, GA)?

How do I know if it is a buyers vs. a seller’s market?

How early is too early to start looking at properties (wife doesn’t want to look at properties as we are 1 – 1 ½ years from moving)?

A phrase I keep hearing on the pod cast is write out the offer. Is that as simple as it sounds, write down my offer and spin the table to the seller?

What is a reasonable amount to offer for a house? I know if it sells for $100,000 that I am not going to offer $50,000 for it, but I also know I don’t want to settle for the posted amount.

What would be a reasonable interest rate for a mortgage and what should I know to run from (I know it is credit rating dependent but in general)?

Right now that is what I know I don’t know and any helpful hints on the things I don’t know I don’t know would be much appreciated. Again listening to the pod casts this was one thing that kept coming up is use the forums, get my name out there, and there is a chance I can get some help. I know it was a long post and I thank you for taking the time to read and any advice would be much appreciated.

V/r,

Sean