Young investor couple starting out! Hello Everyone!

[Nick Koleros]

Hey all,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Nick, and my fiancee and I have opened our eyes to real estate investing. We are currently looking for a house to live in this year, which is our first goal. We plan on getting involved in some rental properties after we are settled in. We just took a Rich Dad 3 day course, which we found beneficial but also left feeling like there is so much more to learn. We also werent willing to pay up to $60,000 to learn from them when there are great resources such as these forums.

We are located in the Toronto area in Ontario, Canada. It would be great to start gathering some contacts from our area. If any of you are from around here, msg me!

Anyhow, looks like I have a lot of reading to do, there is a lot of great info on here.

Thanks in advance and glad to be here!

[William Bannister]

Im with Brandon on the matter of education. There is plenty of free data in the field of real estate investing out there. .I also agree with Will
People in this business do a disservice when they break out snake oil and try to slip you a bill for 60k and say they will get you rich. I like Kiyosakis book's and rich dad poor dad is a nice starter book for those just getting introduced to teh world of personal finance... but thats about as far as I would trust him. I would give him the cost of a 20 dollar book thats it!
BTW for the record 60k would buy you into an apt building that could free you from a job for the rest of your life.
Why do i know that? 12 years ago I was able to quit my job when I entered into a large apt building deal that cost me 35k for my part to get in. For 12 years i have been getting checks for between 1800 and 2200 a month on that deal. It caused me to leave a 18 dollar an hour job in a factory I was working. I still had to do some management on my apts but I was no longer working punching a clock.
I had other property before i entered into that deal. I had built up a portfolio of sfh and duplexes and smaller apt buildings before entering into the larger complex.
Experience you gain before doing deals happens here in forums like this when you read about it and watch others at it share with you.
People come here share questions and experienced investors give input. Its like having a your own private board meet for your business.
Those that contribute in here I can tell want to help others they enjoy the social professional connections they get and as one guy said it sure beats Facebook.
You can read all the books in the library for free and there investment section is large! The always have a lot on real estate investing and you pay only late fees;) I spend a lot of time in libraries and I borrow books from other libraries. Stuff in fresh print if I must have it now I might spend 3 hours at a Barnes and Nobles over a cup of coffee reading . Occasionally I break down and buy a book if its 500 pages and I cant read it fast enough.
I have bought a few courses but I stay away from any high priced boot camps. You can take courses that move you in the direction of getting a brokers license i love those classes because they teach real estate law and how to deal with clients. for example even studying for realtor license much can be obtained free and library. Law books are in some libraries as well. Also lets not forget how great it is just to google something.