Advice on real estate investing

[Tristan Russell]

Hi everyone my name is Tristan & im from Orlando, I'm 20 years old & want to set up for my future. I've been doing research & studies say that Orlando,Tampa & Jacksonville are hot places for real estate so I'm interested in buying & renting out properties. I'm here looking for any tips or advice on things to look out for & the do's & donts of the game. I would really appreciate any advice for people with more experience. I hope to hear back from some of you

[Jonathan Twombly]

@Tristan Russell

First thing is to find all those lists of the hottest markets and make a master list of places NOT to invest.  Hot markets are for amateurs who think they can make money by buying where the competition is most intense and the prices are highest.  

Professional investors look for markets with strong underlying trends, especially population growth, job growth, and income growth.  The best places to invest are markets where those factors are present but the greedy get-rich-quick type investors have not all piled in yet. You want to be in markets where, over the long run, massive underlying trends that have nothing to do with current investor sentiment are going to raise you and your net worth higher and higher over time.  You never want to try to make money timing the market, and that's what hot markets are all about.  Look for slow, steady, and inexorably rising markets instead.

You won't get cash on cash returns in hot markets, and by the time the real estate journalists have identified a market as hot, it's because everyone is taking profits - i.e., the market's at the top.  Just use these lists to tell you what markets to avoid.