Newbie in Phoenix AZ

[Adam Carroll]

I've been listing to BP Podcasts and reading articles for a while and am looking to get started but don't really know where to begin.

Some info about me.

I am a Full time software engineering student with ASU Online and am working full time in the semiconductor industry to pay for school.  My interest in real estate started with my parents house hacking a 4-plex in Massachusetts, they had actually turned a 5 unit into a 4-plex to get a mortgage on it while my father went to lawschool.  Right before the 2008 crash we moved to phoenix and they ended up loosing the building to an absentee realtor, bad management, nightmare tenants and the market crash.  A couple of years later it was condemned allowing them to get people out and turn it over to the bank as part of a bankruptcy.

So long story short I've seen the good bad and ugly through my parents but I still want to learn how to do it right, not get bit and provide solutions to people in similar situations.  I am especially interested in creative real-estate investing because of the low risk and the ability to help people in a tough situation out.