Good afternoon, I am new to real estate and investing.  

Hi Chris,Start by networking through BiggerPockets, local real estate meetups, LinkedIn, and self-storage investor groups.

Here’s a more polished version of your message:Hello BiggerPockets community,A close friend has been encouraging me to get into real estate investing for years.

Quote from @Eric Gerakos: Michael, why would you invest in UNSECURED note funds when you can buy notes SECURED by real estate that are currently paying 10% for 2 or 3 year interest only terms?

I still find this hard to believe. 95% of would be real estate investors never buy a single house.

The best part is the free CD is nothing more than a bunch of vague suggestions about how you can make all this money in real estate and vague bragging sessions about how he has been around so long and wants to give you all his knowledge before he croaks (paraphrased) Someday I will be completely immune to the crooks attempts at separating me from my hard earned money.

To thrive in real estate investing, you must maintain a firm grip on your finances.

Best of luck in your real estate investing!

There are always opportunities in buying real estate, businesses, companies, etc., as long as you know (or think you know) what you are in for.

Get to real estate meetups and network with people out there doing deals.