It takes more than money to be a continued financial success in the real estate business.The Hard Way – Start from the bottom and learn the business – study neighborhoods – attend auctions (don’t bid, just observe.Take courses – but be very selected – don’t over pay – don’t chase the Get Rich Fast programs from Fast Talking Know Nothing Promoters – most of them are trashGet in the field – drive around – farm – talk to neighbors – get listings – call FSBO’s, have agents keep you informed of trends and off market properties – train a real estate buyer’s agentLearn to make offers – but first you need to know what to make offers on, you must understand clauses and contracts – you need to know and understand every word and what that word will do for you or how it can hurt you – my clients are trained to use a contract form we call a Skinny Contract – it is a one page document – it has the address – the offer – and clauses that allow you to sandwich yourself in for an assignment fee and most importantly – full disclosures and what happens if you cannot settle – Set goals ----yep – sound silly, but it works – set a goal to look at 50 properties – My clients call this the 50 house rule – select an area – make appointments with FSBO’s and agents – keep a journal, write down everything about the property especially the cost per square foot, financials, the owner and the building – look at 50 properties – but don’t make offers – just look and study the market – A doctor will studies for years, watches others doctors slice open patients and after many years he has a chance to be a real doctor who has learned to heal people – study your potential profession and work as hard as a doctor would – expose yourself to experience – your job is to know your market better than anyone – it takes a medical student many years to reach their potential – you can earn as you learn without spending years in the process.Working the 50 house rule – don’t make offers on any of them – just keep looking.The purpose of the 50 house Rule is to know every detail about properties on the market, the expired listing market, the tax sale market, the HUD market as well as the market at the court house steps.

In regards to the Houston market you can read the Houston business Journal. 

Keep a journal of your mistakes, especially, and your occasional wins (which are likely to be occasional at best, given that this is your first investment). 

Its basically a journal of my day to day activities as I was getting started. timeframes strategy, skills i taught myself as quickly as humanly possible and tons of notes i took on everything i could.

The Wall Street Journal has described him as the top residential real estate agent in the United States.As you may have guessed there is no mention in the ads about the relationship between the clients Sale Price and Chris Heller's Price if the listing doesn't sell.

Take it one day at a time,  look at three properties per day, keep a journal keep a list of the cost per square foot for every property looked at, make comparisons.Read everything you can about real estate investing, find a local mentor.Charles

I really like #4 about logging or Journaling your failures and setbacks.

I guess I'm pretty much doing this for myself now, as a very public journal.

At a minimum a book-keeping/accounting service should handle -* System set-up (Quickbooks is a fine solution for most)* Data entry/general journal log keeping* Month-end reconciliation* Quarterly report* Quarterly tax filing (Payroll, etc.)* Yearly tax returnsA full service accountant should also handle -* Accounts payable* Accounts receivable* Weekly/biweekly reporting* Project reportingOne of the biggest regrets I have is not having gotten a good book keeper earlier in my business.

Houston is the second largest new-home market in the nation.Facebook Adding to Alliance Texas CampusFORT WORTH (Dallas Business Journal) – Facebook is adding two data halls to its $1 billion data center campus in the AllianceTexas development.DPR Construction, which is behind the $1 billion campus, filed two building permits, one for $182.6 million and one for $181.9 million.