Scare to make mistakes

[Caleb Masuaku]

Hey everyone, 

My name is Caleb, and I am a finance grad student at Louisiana Tech. I have been learning as much as I can about real estate and saving money for the past 9 months.  I would like to buy my first rental property in the next few months in the Milwaukee area using the brrrr method, but I am scared to death to make mistakes and lose the money that I worked so hard to save. 

[Taylor Dasch]

Man I know it sucks to be saving for so long then having the risk of making a mistake. Especially when you worked really hard to save the $. First, it is best to find a mentor to help guide you, this will limit your mistakes if you can find one. Next, I would start with a cosmetic fixer upper/light rehab. Learn your market and give yourself a little more room when you run your numbers. 

I was the same way and I honestly made pretty much every mistake that you could think of: didnt negotiate at all, no plan for the rehab except to do it myself lol, no timeline, no idea of what any of the repairs would be or cost, I had a decent idea of ARV and rental rates in the area but that was it. I went way over budget and if I sold today I would probably make about 55K but killed my cash on cash. BUT during the rehab period of about 6 months, I learned so much! Now I have a good grasp of costs, working with contractors, timelines, etc and am much more prepared to go find good deals. Everyone makes mistakes even seasoned investors. The main factor in determining your success will be how you deal with/learn from the mistakes you made.