I’ve been reading as many RE investing books as I can along with watching BP webinars as I am new to Real Estate investing.

I found a bank owned property 2 hrs away from where I live and I need to know how to proceed.

The property is a 2 bedroom 1 bath house, 1100 square feet for $129,000.

It’s been on the market 4 days and and an open house is scheduled by the realtor this Sunday.

My questions are:

1. Do I need to wait until Sunday to see the house or can I contact the realtor to see before then?

2. I will be running the numbers later today but for now I’m scared out of my mind on how to proceed.

3. When I look at the house and if I want to move forward, do I take a cashiers check with me as an earnest deposit?

My intentions are to buy and hold - possibly rent short term so we have a vacation house to go to. This little town is really popular year round so I don’t think short term rental will be a problem.

Even though I’ve probably read 15 books on real estate investing recently, I’m afraid to move forward without some advice from people who have done this before.

@Dana Vijum - The first property is the most scary. Open House just means that is when the Listing Agent (or someone representing) will be at the property for any unscheduled interested parties to stop by and take a look. It does not mean you cannot schedule a showing with a Realtor before or after then. If you do not think the property will sit long, it would be best to schedule your own showing ASAP and be prepared to submit your offer if you like what you see and wish to proceed.

You can schedule the showing and submit your offer with the Listing Agent, or you can get your own Agent to show you the home and submit your offer through that person. There are pluses and minuses with going either route. You would not need to have the EMD funds with you at the time of the showing, as most Agents do not hold deposits directly anyway.

But if you are going to fund the purchase with a lender, you would want to get a pre-approval letter and have proof of funds for whatever your down-payment portion is indicated to be in that letter, as these will be needed when submitting your offer to the seller regardless of if done with the Listing Agent or your own Realtor. If it will be a cash purchase, then you'll need to be able to show proof of funds for the purchase price.

@Jonathan Taylor Smith - thank you for the advice.

I’m meeting with my bank this afternoon and driving up to see the property tomorrow.

Keeping fingers crossed....