I ended up passing w/o spending the time to drive to the house.

My name is Lenny and I currently live in Long Island but spend the majority of my time in NYC due to work.For years I have always been interested in becoming a Real Estate Investor, but have either let negative people talk me out of it, or let small things or my lack of knowledge hold me back from moving ahead.I came across this site by randomly typing in 'Real Estate forums' into Google, in hopes that in this day and age there is a forum for everything, and sure enough I was right.After browsing the site for a few minutes, I thought for sure it would prevent me from accessing any extra material due to my past experiences in regards to Real Estate knowledge.

Since it's one of the most speculative market, and it has a lot of competition, it seems like you have to take more and more risks to get the deals.I'm not trying to discourage you but try to be extra cautious so you don't get burnt.If I were you I would spend a few months going to trustee auctions, going to a lot of open houses, trying to network with current investors etc.

I'd rather spend my time doing other stuff plus I enjoy having real estate agents on my team.

I would take this opportunity to spend some time looking at Fair Housing stuff and have a firm grasp on it.

We would have loved to have kept it ourselves but We just didn't have the cash to pull it off and couldn't find financing.If you have $60K to spend you can find a property that will cash flow well, pretty easily in the City.

You might spend $300 for a decent saw but think about how many jobs it can be used in, that saw is going to make you money, without it, you can't do the job.Documents from an attorney are much the same, you don't run to your attorney every time you need to cut the same type of deal, those documents can be copied and used over and over.

We've got several investors out of California and the reason they buy here is that the deals and returns they get here can't be had in California or if they can they are spending a lot more dinero.

Worked like a charm, and now I live off my rentals and get to play on the internet, take nice walks, extended lunch outings, etc.

@Kim H. and @David Edgerton - did you have to spend anytime in an actual classroom setting (for maybe the prep??)