All Forum Posts by: Jaren Barnes

@Tyus Foster Yea great question! It all depends on what niche you're in. 

If you want to be an apartment owner, starting out as a leasing agent for a commercial property management company might be a great start. 

If you wanted to work as fix and flipper, maybe finding one - or better yet, a turn-key operation - could be a good start. 

They'd have you hunt for deals, network, screen calls etc. 

Does that make sense?

I live in Chicago but invest in Florida. There are definitely better cap rates in certain areas here but for me, I'm leery about the Chicago market.

-We're losing about 5,000 people per year (over the last five years) yet builders are continuing to build at a high rate. 

-We have some of the highest crime in the nation. 

-There is a lot of political unrest (we don't have the funds as a city to cover the pension demands for retirees).

-The laws favor the tenants. 

I love it here, as a lifestyle, and I believe in Chicago's future but I don't know if this is the time to jump into the market.  

Maybe if your approach is strictly to buy and hold you'll be fine. We're the 3rd largest city in the U.S. so right now we don't even feel the population decline - it's super easy to find tenants!

But for me, I'd rather hunt for a deal in a growing market (like Florida). 

@Tyus Foster I would start by first figuring out what aspect of real estate you like the most. 

If you know what kind of asset class you resonate with the most, you can try and go work with an already successful investor in your market and learn everything you need to know while getting paid. 

That's what I did in wholesaling and it worked out great!

@Jaden Adams I never went to college and to be honest, it was probably one of the best financial decisions of my life. 

If you just get your licensed and you read a crap ton of (good) books you'll probably be more educated (in certain areas, like how to make money, for example) than a lot of people who hold degrees. 

The major drawback to a career without a degree is that you're options are potentially limited.

You have to either work for yourself, in sales or just catch a break when you're first getting starting (meaning you land a good job that normally would require a degree, without one. This opens doors based on your work experience for other jobs in the future). 

As long as you're okay with having to be more creative, and self-reliant for your job security, I think you'd be better off taking a loan of $100,000+ and investing that in real estate. 

It might be harder at times, especially at first, but you'll have more perks and more control - at least that's been my experience. 

@Pedro Amador I know a lot of people think direct mail is dead, and I might be ignorant (I'm in pursuit of my first apartment building as well) but in my land business, I do direct mail as my primary method of getting deals. 

I think you'd need to get very creative and strategic about it but I'm pretty sure direct mail could still work in this space- at least that's what I'm planning to do in Florida. 

I'm thinking of doing something extreme for my mail piece, like a video card or big gift box or something. I don't think postcards or yellow letters will work but if you got creative, I think you could get a deal direct to seller. 

I've been working with Danyelle Roller at Fund and Grow after we had Mike Banks on the REtipster podcast. 

So far, they seem extremely professional and the process has been extremely easy. 

I'll be starting my first round of funding tomorrow and plan on doing a full review of my experience over at REtipster.com... but so far, this has been an almost "Too-Good-To-Be-True" kind of experience - hands down one of the easiest forms of financing I've found as a real estate investor. 

Hey guys,

What are the top 10 books on wholesaling that EVERY wholesaler needs to have in their library and why?

@Sihao Cao Welcome to the site man!

I'd suggest setting up a key word for Morcester to see what's happening in that area. 

@Jill T. Hi! Thanks for sharing your story. I think it's always super valuable when people do that.

I'd suggest starting off with the following resources:

1.http://www.biggerpockets.com/starthere

2.http://www.biggerpockets.com/files

3.The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing

These are really great places to get immersed in the benefits and tools of this community!

If you ever have any questions feel free to reach out to me any time!

@Keith Anderson Hey welcome to BiggerPockets man! I used to live in Henry country!

Let me know if you have any questions!