The Ultimate 8 Steps To Getting Started In Investing In Apartment Buildings (You Don't Want To Miss #6!)

Hey everyone!

Thanks for your positive feedback about the video blog last week. Here’s another one!

In this video, I want to talk about 8 steps a newbie investor can take in the next three to six months to get started with apartment building investing.

While the task can seem overwhelming, there are some well-defined and easy-to-do things you start doing today. Do a little bit each day, and after a while, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve accomplished!

Step # 1: Read Free Stuff

Start of course here, with the BiggerPockets.com.In fact, if you search the article archives, podcasts and forums, chances are it’ll keep you busy for weeks and you’ll never need to go anywhere else.

Step # 2: Buy A Book

Go to Amazon and Google “apartment building investing” or something similar. There are several good books on the subject that will give you a good overview of what apartment building investing entails.

Step # 3: Network With Other Investors

Attend your local Real Estate Investor Club meeting. Soak it all in, and after a few visits, you’ll figure out who the commercial real estate investors are. Take them out to lunch and pick their brain.

Step # 4: Attend A Seminar

Once you’ve made up your mind that you want to get into apartment building investing, it may be time for you to invest in a seminar or course. A good seminar (even one that may be more expensive) will help you avoid some of the more basic and major mistakes and will speed up the learning curve.

Step # 5: Create A Sample Deal Package

Search for deals on loopnet.com and request the marketing package for one of the deals. Create a Deal Package with information about the property, photos, your business plan, actual financials, and projected financials and returns. This is useful in several ways: (1) it helps make the whole thing more real to you and (2) you can use it when speaking to potential investors, brokers, and lenders to give you credibility.

Step # 6: Practice Analyzing Deals!

Buy or create a deal analyzer spreadsheet to answer the question “what is the most I can pay for this deal?” The more you analyze, the more confident you’ll get.

Step # 7: Tour a Property

Call a broker, request the marketing package, analyze the deal, and arrange a visit of the property.

Step # 8: Make An Offer (Yikes!)

Submit a Letter of Intent and hold your breath! The worst that could happen is that it gets rejected. Submit another one. If for some reason your offer is accepted, don’t worry, it’s not legally binding so you can always withdraw it.

If you do these 8 steps over the next 3-6 months, you will be amazed at how far you’ve come.

OK, enough talk, let’s watch the video!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSa2thbAbp4]

Please share anything that helped you get started with real estate investing!

Be sure to leave your comments below!

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.