New Investor in the area

[Evan Smeenge]

All,

I also posted in the pro forum, but wanted to reach out to my local family. 

 I am new and really need as much advice as I can get

My first question is: what is my next step?

I am currently 100% owner of E&S Properties LLC. This was my first investment in myself and a small nudge to push me in the right direction. I am saving every cent I can to buy my first property. I have spoken to a mortgage broker and have joined BP as a pro. What do I do next? I have 2,000 in the bank (a long ways to go), and a passion for real estate and passive income.

Can't wait to hear all your thoughts.

Evan

[Anthony Thompson]

Evan, I responded to your other post suggesting you meet with your mortgage broker to review your finances and what you can afford now, vs. what you can afford when you have various higher down payment amounts.

@Sam Albert is right that visiting one or more local REIAs such as RIREIG in Warwick or Black Diamond REI in Massachusetts, is a great idea too. You may find others in a similar place and get together with some of them to mutually support each other, or get together with more experienced investors for coffee, etc.

As others said, you can also do some reading and listening (such as to the BP podcasts) to educate yourself more, so that when you do have a bigger down payment saved you'll have more knowledge under your belt.

(Just remember that book/audio/class learning only goes so far, action/experience is the real teacher, and don't go to any seminars as many of them are just well oiled sales machines that get people to go to a free/cheap introductory seminar and then progressively upsell them to more expensive ones - which would actually reduce your cash and take you further away from your goal of owning property!)

Another option would be to learn about wholesaling as a way to build up additional cash for a down payment, but you sound like this is all new to you, and wholesaling is actually a bit complicated once you get into it. It's certainly do-able, but you do have to have a minimum level of familiarity and comfort with real estate, and the # of wholesale deals I've done that have become complicated/hairy/stressful far outweighs the ones that went smoothly :)

You might be better off paying a small amount to sit through the real estate pre-license courses they give to new agents, just to get familiar and comfortable with a wide array of real estate terminology and issues (as well as get a better understanding of how real estate agents/brokers/etc. work).

(There are many places to take such classes but I still think RIAR might be the best one, and while 99% of the people in the class are there just to take the salesperson exam at the end, you can absorb all the knowledge and then just not take the exam. I did that back in 2003 and still recommend it to newer folks.)