New member from Europe wanting to get started in real estate

[Alexia M.]

Hi everyone! I just joined Biggerpockets and thought I'd quickly introduce myself before spamming the forums with all of my questions.

I'm Alexia and I'm from Europe, more specifically from Belgium. I am a marketing student specializing in international business and will be graduating next year in June. I'm also self-employed and running a full-time photo editing business for wedding photographers, which allows me to be location independent.

The reason I joined BiggerPockets is that for a while, I've been very interested in real estate, more specifically in house flipping and short-term rentals. We (my boyfriend and I) are trying to save up as much money as we can within the next 2-3 years and want to invest this money in real estate and are looking into what would be the best ways for us to do so. He is very much a handyman, he's a certified electrician and plumber and is experienced in other fields as well. I am also pretty handy (although not as experienced as him) but as opposed to him, I'm the one who also likes to do all of the research.

I am planning on moving to the South of Europe (probably to Portugal) when I've finished college and that's probably where we'd then want to start flipping houses/apartments and then sell these or rent them out. I want to make sure I know as much as I can before actually getting started with it so I can avoid as many beginner mistakes as I can.

We are looking to see what would be the most feasible for us to do and what the best way to invest in European real estate is in our position. I've already done a quick scroll through the forums and am so excited to broaden my knowledge on this topic and learn from all of the amazing people that are on here!