Newbie from Brooklyn, NY

[Christian Ortega]

Good evening fellow BP community,

My name is Christian Ortega and I have made the decision to embark on a journey to financial freedom through Real Estate Investing. I'm novice to the industry and have taken the initiative to reach out to my personal network for a 101 on Real Estate. To no surprise, a common reoccurring suggestion was to sign up to BP, take the webnairs and start listening to the BP podcast. And you guessed it, I'm learning a lot! I've also taken a Fortune Builders 3-day workshop to add to my education. I am reaching out to the community to start healthy dialogues with investors, BP members and anyone willing to offer a helping hand with advice in securing my first deal. 

My goals are simple for now and I'm sure will grow with experience. In two years, I want to have enough assets paying off a car lease and rent for an apartment. In five years, I want to have enough assets to purchase a condo and have the mortgage paid with consistent cash flow. In ten years, I want to retire from the rat race and live off and build my Real Estate assets.

I know that this will take hard work, I know that there will be bumps on the road, I know this will be a journey that will test me but I welcome it all. I like to work hard, it is how I'm built. My goal here is to build a foundation, a network, resources and give back when necessary. However, to get there I need help. So to start off, I have two simple and direct questions for veteran/seasoned real estate investors and BP members:

1) How long was your learning curve before you took action on securing your first deal?

2) Is it better to create an LLC prior to securing your first deal?

Looking forward to the responses.

Thank you to those who took the time to read the post and an extra thank you to those who respond. 

-Christian