Engineering Graduate trying to pursue REI

[Aaron Ray]

Hello Bigger Pockets community! (I hope you take the time to read through my message) 

I have been a member here for about 3-4 months now and have been waiting to post something until I have had the opportunity to read articles posted to the blog, listen to many of the podcasts, and browse through the discussions. Now that I have done so, I feel a little more comfortable putting myself out there.

As a new member and amateur, some things that I have already learned are: This business is not easy, it is time consuming, it is not a get rich quick process and it requires a lot of hard work and motivation. (And with that being said, I applaud all of those who have had success). I have also learned, one of the best ways to get started is to find a mentor. However, I've been told that most just ask for help and want a mentor to show them exactly how to do everything and majority of the time these people are too lazy and not willing to work hard enough to get where they want to be, or have nothing beneficial to offer a mentor.

A goal of mine is to eventually find someone who will mentor me and in return I can provide some sort of service to them. A quick background on myself... I just recently graduated this May from Penn State with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering, but no longer want much to do with design engineering lol. My interests are much more closer to the business side of things, architecture, and all things to do with real estate. I decided to not pursue a career path directly related to Mechanical Engineering, so I now work for a large contracting company in the Washington D.C. area known as Whiting-Turner (the closest I could get to have anything to do with REI). I am a project engineer and our work consists of building large projects from beginning to end such as hospitals, hotels, airports, university buildings, etc.. Because of my work and schooling my strengths are data analysis, numbers, communication, project management, hiring sub-contractors, and much more.

So to conclude, I am a 22 year old recent college grad and I just moved to the Washington D.C. Area and I happen to really want to start investing into real estate, but to be completely honest, I don't know what my first step should be... If you took the time to read all of this, I thank you very much, and would greatly appreciate any conversation! And feel free to ask me ANY questions, I left a lot out of this.

Thanks!

[Ben Wilkins]

@Aaron Ray - first, congrats on graduating! Second, what projects are you working on for Whiting-Turner? My dad is a senior project manager there and might bump shoulders with you haha

Suggestions for first steps: start determining what area of real estate you want to get into. There are so many strategies, so many ways of investing, so many niches, that it is tough to focus on one area of real estate. Pick a few and dig deeper into those portions of real estate.

Second tip: once you pick a niche to focus on (or while you pick one), define your short and long-term goals. Goals help set your course, and give you some motivation to keep going.

Third tip: start analyzing deals in the niche that you choose. While analyzing, start figuring out what criteria you need to focus on in order to meet your goals. Are you after cash flow? A certain cap rate? Equity? Use these criteria and try to determine what deals would be worth it.

Fourth tip: Network. I'll be reaching out to you since we share a few things in common (I'm also a ME, currently working as a robotics programmer and paint engineer).

Best of luck!