Help to get started investing in real estate

[Shawn Chummar]

Hi All, 

I just joined BP as I'm starting to get interested in real estate investing. with single income family, i'm looking at ways to make passive income.  Here are my questions (forgive me if they are basic)

What is the minimum amount to start investing in real estate?

I live in Portland which is a fairly steady market with higher than average house prices. As a newbie, should I look within my market or look at markets where housing has lower entry cost?

What are some good books to help get started?

any information would be most helpful.

Thank you!

[Denise Evans]

@William Watt, you might want to switch to leases with purchase options instead of vendor's lien deeds.  Otherwise, you will have Dodd-Frank issues with needing a licensed mortgage loan originator on your deals, plus the due diligence on ability to repay, prohibitions against balloons, etc etc etc depending on volume of transactions.  

Also, I don't like doing vendor lien deeds because unlike a regular deed, note and mortgage, you have to judicially foreclose the vendors lien deed. That is because in Alabama a mortgage transfers legal title to the lender. Then the non-judicial foreclosure merely forecloses the equity of redemption to get the title back into the borrower after the loan is paid in full. The lender already has title, so it can non-judicially foreclose. That is similar to states that use a deed of trust. All other states that use an instrument called a mortgage just get a lien on the property. They do not yet have title, so they have to judicially foreclose. A vendor's lien deed is the same type of thing.  They were very popular at one time because it gave the seller/lender priority over other liens because of the superiority of purchase money liens. The law has now evolved and you get the same protections with a purchase money mortgage. So, now there is no reason to do a vendors lien deed and good reasons to avoid using it.