Investor · Dallas TX, United States · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
This question is for the new investors out there and people who havent really started investing yet. What do you want to learn? What do you think it will take to get you through your first deal? What scares you about real estate investing? Why are you interested in real estate investing? Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
It looks like wholesaling is a good intro for new people. Its easy to understand, and pretty much anyone can do it with little training, and a handful of legal docs.
Do you really believe that? If so, I'm guessing that either you don't wholesale very much or you've been doing it so long that you're out of touch with the reality of the business. Wholesaling requires the knowledge associated with lots of different real estate areas, including flipping (calculating rehab costs, determining ARV, analyzing flip deals, etc), buy-and-hold (determining market rent, analyzing buy-and-hold deals, determining minimum rehab scope for a rental, etc), marketing for deals, marketing for buyers, etc.
Building a successful wholesale business is probably the hardest thing for a new investor to do, not the easiest. I know many more failed wholesalers than failed flippers or landlords.
To elaborate on my point from earlier, it sounds to me like you're thinking more about how you can make some money from all this coaching than what's in the best interest of your students. If you cared about the success of your students, the content of your teaching would be obvious -- you'd either give them what they're asking for, or if they can't tell you, you'd focus on whatever real estate strategy(s) are most likely to be successful in YOUR PARTICULAR MARKET.
If it's not obvious what you should be teaching new investors in your own market, I'd suggest holding off charging people money for education...
I want to learn EVERYTHING! That's the problem. Everytime I start digging in I feel like I'm missing vital info somewhere else. I am hoping to be in and out of my first deal in the next 4-6 months. A lot of things worry me about real estate the main one is a flip that doesnt make money. Another is because I started behind the 8 ball financially I will have to go the zero down route. I am interested in REI because I love fixing up houses. My dad was a GC so we grew up building homes then selling and building the next. I would also like to be my own boss and not do something I do not love. Thanks.
Thats sort of my problem. I want to prvide education to my group that fits the needs of my group. So what I end up doing is giving them all a little bit of everything. I try to hit everything from wholesaling, landlording, flipping, private money, notes, etc. I wonder if this is the right approach?
My goal is to do my first deal in the next 3 months. I'm scared that I don't know enough to go through with it. I want to either wholesale and or landlord.
You don't indicate what or who your "group" is composed of or even what kind of group it is, so the question exists in a vacuum. It's kind of a blank canvas. As a newbie to REI, here's my 2 cents...
You will do your group a disservice and frustrate your self if you try to tackle everything. Do an overview of the most common REI strategies. Afterwards, poll your group and find out what most of the people are interested in. Start with the one that has the most interest and cover that at a level that shows people the complete life-cycle of the transaction. Don't get bogged down in exotic variations. Stick to meat & potatoes. Teach them how to evaluate deals with that strategy in mind, how to find properties, how to exit using that strategy, etc. - full life-cycle.
With each new strategy you focus on, build on what they already know. Teach them how to take a deal they found for a primary exit of the previous strategy(s) and determine whether it would work for the next strategy. If it can be combine with the previous strategy, teach them that.
I want to learn to wholesale and build enough wealth to eventually buy and flip. I think it will take a lot of networking and going out there and talking to people to get and close my first wholesale deal. What scares me the most is not knowing enough, not doing the numbers right and losing money. As for why real estate interests me, I want something where I can be my own boss and be very hands on not just locked away in an office looking at a screen all day.
Bigger pockets rules prohibit me from talking about my group. Its a large club of investors who have various skill sets and experience levels. What I have found is that in a group of experienced investors, new investors are reluctant to speak up and tell me what they want. I guess its a fear thing, but the why is irrelevant, I need the info. thank you all for your replys. It looks like wholesaling is a good intro for new people. Its easy to understand, and pretty much anyone can do it with little training, and a handful of legal docs.
It looks like wholesaling is a good intro for new people. Its easy to understand, and pretty much anyone can do it with little training, and a handful of legal docs.
Do you really believe that? If so, I'm guessing that either you don't wholesale very much or you've been doing it so long that you're out of touch with the reality of the business. Wholesaling requires the knowledge associated with lots of different real estate areas, including flipping (calculating rehab costs, determining ARV, analyzing flip deals, etc), buy-and-hold (determining market rent, analyzing buy-and-hold deals, determining minimum rehab scope for a rental, etc), marketing for deals, marketing for buyers, etc.
Building a successful wholesale business is probably the hardest thing for a new investor to do, not the easiest. I know many more failed wholesalers than failed flippers or landlords.
To elaborate on my point from earlier, it sounds to me like you're thinking more about how you can make some money from all this coaching than what's in the best interest of your students. If you cared about the success of your students, the content of your teaching would be obvious -- you'd either give them what they're asking for, or if they can't tell you, you'd focus on whatever real estate strategy(s) are most likely to be successful in YOUR PARTICULAR MARKET.
If it's not obvious what you should be teaching new investors in your own market, I'd suggest holding off charging people money for education...
Wholesaling seems to be the double-edged sword of newbie investing. On the one hand, it's touted as the easiest and least expensive strategy to start with; then we find out how hard it is to actually do, and how few investors are making any real money doing it (except for the gurus, if you believe them).
Buy and hold is the true wealth-building strategy, buy few beginners have the resources or skill set to do it.
Add all this to the never-ending barrage of information coming from everywhere, and it becomes easy to get paralyzed with doubt and fear.
What new investors need at some point is an internal "mute" button. At some point you have to shut off the noise. You'll never know everything (or even enough) to get started. So just get started anyway.
I want to learn everything and then scale it down to a level of expertise of my field of choice. I believe that you have to start with the basics and master those skills (taking basic real estate classes for example) and then going from there. Next, I believe that you have to network, watch, learn and take advice. Ive been reading alot and learning, but I still feel like a couple of pieces to my puzzle are missing. Ive decided that Im interested in fix and flips and wholesale.
I want to learn everything as well. However, to start I know I need to get the first deal done. I am thinking of foreclosure flip as a starter. I need to build up $$ along with overcoming the fear of starting and building relationships. I guess I have started at the relationship building by joining this group. I am new as of today and look forward to working with as many as I can. Any guidance on where to find the foreclosures? And hard money lenders worth it?
my problem is I don't know much about actual home construction. My goal is to find buy and hold property's. I can't look at a house and tell you if something big like a roof or foundation is bad. I just haven't been exposed to that stuff. So that's one thing I am trying to learn :)
@J Scott - Some people have an uncanny ability to cut through the bull. You win the prize - is that cup of patience bottomless or what? You know how I feel about @Brandon Turner and @Brian Burke . I got to say - you're right up there :)
ok that didnt go through... im typing this on my phone in thr middle of southwest Texas with poor connection. .. bottom line is to be a successful wholeseller.. in my opinion.. you MUST know how to determine rehab costs and ARV and learning both takes a lot of work.
Speaking as a new investor who hasn't done his first deal. I would like to know more about due diligence. If I could get confident with researching an area, I could get pass my first deal.
What I would like to learn as being new as a REI is how to over come the fear of failing before you start. I am starting with no knowledge and no cash so there is really no foundation. Since joining this site the other day I see that others are in the same situation but we all have determination. There is a lot of people who give encouragement and a lot of information to absorb on this site, so I'm going to let this be my foundation to close a deal in the next few months.
As I stated before, wholesaling is the simplest form of real estate investing. It has nothing to do with rehab flip costs, that is rehabbing. ARV doesnt apply, ARV only comes into play when you are rehabbing (Im actually in the room with the guy who invented that term as I write this).
You believe that wholesalers need to know nothing about estimating rehab costs or determining ARV? That's one of the more ridiculous things I've ever heard from someone who claims to be a professional in this business, and I'm not going to bother even digging down further into the discussion, as there is amount of debate that will convince me that there's even a hint of truth to that ridiculousness.
And based on that, I double down on my point above -- you really shouldn't be teaching wholesaling to others.
Btw, there are some tremendously experienced wholesalers on this forum -- I wonder if any of them agree that you can be successful at wholesaling without knowing anything about estimating rehab costs or determining ARV?
Like others I want to know everything, but to start I'd like to know where should my funds be in order to apply for a home loan? Should I save up $50K first? Where should my credit be? Right now, I'm finishing up my MBA (will graduate in December, yay!) and I have practically a mortgage amount in student loans - do I pay those off first? Do I pay them down some and then apply? My financial consultant suggests that I pay off everything off first and then think about owning a home. (this could take years!) Only other debt I have is my car note, but I've decided to attack that aggressively for the next 6 months, but afterwards will that be enough. I guess my question is where should one be financially in order to get started?