Looking forward to chattin with you.Well thanks for the warm welcome, I have one lady I refer my shart sales to.

I recently graduated from Rutgers University and am trying to learn as much about real estate as I can.

Graduated and played ball at Xavier university in Cincinnati OH.

I have quad 4 unit buildings that are town homes.What I have found is it is much better to put all tile on the main floor instead of carpet or vinyl.Upstairs with the carpet it doesn't get worn down as much as the main level.When you evict a tenant with tile it is mop and go and not fixing tears in vinyl or carpet that can't be salvaged.The dirty carpets tend to attract bug problems as well.You can find tile cheap and buy a big area rug to warm it up for cheap.The key with tile is the contractors can kill you on the install fee.You have to find a contractor hungry for money.I can get tile 12 X 12 for 56 cents a sq ft.Main level I would spend about 229.60 in tiles,another 150.00 in mix for bonding and grout for finish and just put back old finish trim down and repaint.Can get a hungry contractor for 75.00 a day to tile day one and finish grout 75.00 day two.Total cost 529.60 for main level.I have 1,178 sq ft with 2 story but I leave carpet upstairs and on the stairs and tile the main.Don't pay high prices.Be patient and turn over rocks to find the great deals.

As soon as investors understand that they are not the center of the universe.

If you are more of a warm weather person, I'd focus on florida, texas(austin area), alabama and Phoenix.

Look at the price of a university degree!

Thank you Michael, Brian, Kathy and James for the warm welcome :)After doing quite a bit of research, taking courses on all the different types of strategies, legal advice on the vast pitfalls of real estate investing, negotiating, etc.

I am wondering how/if to best use the Cash Value of my Universal Life Policy to assist in getting into RE Investing.

The main reasons that I'm looking at Columbia, is that I grew up there, know the area and the fact that it is very close to the University campus.