Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2015 · 172 posts · 58 votes
I am new to investing and have done some self-educating over the past few years by reading books, forums, blogs, and listening to podcasts and webinars. I still feel like I could learn a lot more: I feel like I generally know what to do but lack understanding of how to do it/not sure I remember all the steps. Should I just start diving in and learn as I go or should I wait and learn more? I would like a mentor but have yet to find one and wonder if I should start anyway because at least then I'd be doing deals. What would you do in my noob position?
Hey Ben, what’s your financial situation like? Are you able to qualify for a loan? If you can start with something simple like house-hacking that gives you a clear goal.
There are a multitude of ways to build wealth through RE so you can’t expect to learn everything about all of them before getting started.
What you need to do is decide what your long-term goal is (why do you want to invest in RE?), then look at your financial situation and determine what avenue of investing makes the most sense.
If you find that something like house-hacking is the most logical first step then you know exactly what you need to learn before starting (how to screen tenants, what areas are in the path of progress, etc).
@Ben Feder I mean buy a condo, live in one room and rent out the other(s). If you are renting an apartment now with roommates, your lifestyle wouldn't change much, but you are building equity.
You can buy multiple condos within a building, but you have to be careful. A lender would be able to confirm this, but I believe if one investor owns more than 10% of the condos in a complex, then traditional financing may not work for everyone else, thus dropping values.