All Forum Posts by: Cesar Rivera

I'm not an experienced real estate investor but I do have some insights on the college bit. 

Firstly, if you don't know what you'd go to college for that tells me you shouldn't force it. 

I went to college, did well, I treated it very transactional. I did get some jobs directly because of my college education and certainly it was a rewarding and valuable experience but I think I would have ended up somewhere about where I am today without it. 

Without knowing what you are interested in, besides real estate, it's hard to make recommendations on specific paths. Obviously you are going to have to make some money and pay the bills while building up your real estate portfolio. 

One last note - not everyone will make a good real estate agent. I'm not one, I don't know even if I would be a good one. I do think it takes a special person to make a great one though. 

Don't overlook trade school. Real estate investors are always looking for decent electricians, plumbers, contractors, landscapers, pool builders, you name it. If you know the trades you will be better able to negotiate, speak the language, and understand costs. 

Hey @Cesar Rivera,

Congrats on your ambition!

Bigger Pockets recently published a book that's perfect for you! It's called First to a Million. You should check it out! If you have questions about the book, let me know. I am the author. :-) Also, check out this forum post.

In addition, DM me if you are interested in an online community of young, like-minded individuals.

Best of luck to you!

College is almost always a waste of time, particularly for an investor. You can learn everything you need to know for free on BiggerPockets. Buy some books and you'll accelerate that learning. Get a coach or mentor and it will accelerate even more. An above-average person can self-study and know what they need within 3-6 months. You can be financially independent and wealthy in 10 years.

Start by developing a goal. What do you hope to achieve? If you don't know where you're going, we can't help you get there.

Reverse engineer. If your goal is $10,000 a month for the rest of your life, how many houses or apartments or storage units will it take to get there? If you decide it will take 10 fully-paid for houses and you want to have them within 10 years, what will it take to buy house #1, then house #2, etc. Do the hard work, put it in writing, and follow it. You'll be leaps ahead of most.

Once your plan is developed, make a list of what you need to know (analyzing properties, finding deals, inspections, application screening, etc.) and start educating yourself. How will you get the money to put down on a property? Can you qualify for a loan? Can you partner with someone to accelerate this process? There are many things to learn, but you'll accelerate your learning by putting pencil to paper, making a list, and then knocking things out one at a time.

Here's some generic advice.

1. Start with BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide (free). It will familiarize you with the basic terminology and benefits. Then you can read a more in-depth book like The Book On Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner or The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing by Spencer Strauss.

2. Get your finances in order. Get rid of debt, build a budget, and save. The idea that you can build wealth without putting any money into it is a recipe for disaster and the sales pitch of gurus trying to steal your money. A wise investor will not try to get rich quick with shortcuts. If you can't keep control of your personal finances, you are highly unlikely to succeed in real estate investing. Check out my personal favorite, Set For Life by Scott Trench , or The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.

3. As you read these books, watch the biggerpockets podcasts. This will help clarify and reinforce what you are reading. You can hear real-world examples of how others have built their investment portfolio and (hopefully) learn to avoid their mistakes.

4. Now you need to figure out how to find deals and pay for them. Again, the BiggerPockets store has some books for this or you can learn by watching podcasts, reading blogs, and interacting on the forum. There is a handy search bar in the upper right that makes it easy to find previous discussions, blogs, podcasts, and other resources. Biggerpockets also has a calculator you can use to analyze deals and I highly recommend you start this as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to buy. If you consistently analyze properties, it will be much easier to recognize a good deal when it shows up. Find Brandon's videos on YouTube for the "four square" method of analyzing homes and practice. It doesn't take long to learn how to spot a good deal.

5. Study the market. You can learn to do this on your own or get a rockstar REALTOR to lead the way. I highly recommend a well-qualified REALTOR that works with investors and knows how to best help you.

6. Jump in! Far too many get stuck in the "paralysis by analysis" stage, thinking they just don't know enough to get started. The truth is, you could read 100 books and still not know enough because certain things need to be learned through trial-and-error. You don't need to know everything to get started; you just need a foundation to build on and the rest will come through experience and then refining your education.

You can build a basic understanding of investing in 3-6 months. How long it takes to be financially ready is different for everyone. Once you're ready, create a goal (e.g. "I will buy at least one single-family home, duplex, triplex, or fourplex before the end of 2019") and then do it. Real estate investing is a pretty forgiving world and the average person can still make money even with some pretty big mistakes.

Hi there Cesar, 

Great job! You're off to a good start with your research. By now you must have a good idea of what style/strategy you want. For example, my style is long-term SFRs with buy-and-hold forever with easy selfservice-management so I can leave an inheritance to my kids (I don't think my kids want to be a landlord so I need to build my rental operation to practically run itself). What is yours? 

Do you like flipping, hoteling, short-term rentals, multifamily, syndication, etc? Once you really dial in what you want, and explain exactly what you're trying to do, then I think people would be able to help you better. I get it...it's hard to know what you want sometimes, but you have to give it a lot of thought and forecast the future a bit. Anyways, that's how I see it...

Problem is, your question is a bit too broad and you might get a lot of random advice. If you don't know what you want yet, then maybe it's not time to put together your plan of attack. Tell me, how can you narrow down what you want out of real estate investing, like what's your ideal "forever" plan?

Rene G

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

Purchase price: $277,000
Cash invested: approximately $70,000

4BR/2BA single-family long-term rental in Madison Alabama.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

This was my first real estate deal. I became interested in real estate after listening to the BiggerPockets podcasts for several years.  After analyzing multiple markets, I zeroed in on Alabama in general because it has the 2nd-lowest real estate taxes in the country (after Hawaii), as well as its landlord-friendly eviction laws.  I became interested in Huntsville in particular because of its diverse employment base (Facebook data center, Toyota plant, Redstone Arsenal, and the multitude of aerospace/defense contractors).

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Sourced via MLS. Found my realtor here on BP, she negotiated on my behalf. She is also my property manager, since I am an out-of-state investor.

How did you finance this deal?

Realtor introduced me to a local lender who ended up being the lowest interest rate (out of 10+ lenders I price-compared).

How did you add value to the deal?

I provided 25% of the total capital required, and 100% of the cash-to-close. In addition, I initially found the property via my MLS research and provided the due diligence necessary to determine the property's investment potential.

What was the outcome?

After minimal cosmetic rehab (about $4.5k in paint etc.), the PM was able to find a credit-worthy tenant with an excellent rental history, and signed a 12-month lease at $1,750/month.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

The monthly rent was a bit less than I had budgeted for. My lesson is that it's a bad idea to rely on your realtor to tell you if a certain monthly rent is realistic. It's like asking your barber if you need a haircut. Nevertheless, the deal does still cash-flow positively, largely because I made sure to include a margin of safety in my cash-flow projections.