Hello Bigger Pockets community!

My name is Robert Myers, and my friend and I are looking to establish ourselves in the real estate investing world. After reading the Ultimate Guide, we became extremely excited about investing, and are eager to get started! Right now, we are looking to purchase our first property, and we are at the point where we have a plan for success. We are trying to start out by getting an FHA loan for a multifamily unit, preferably in a nice area like Roosevelt Island or Astoria, to have a place to live rent free and a source of reliable income. Right now, the things we need right now more than anything are mentorship, networking, and financing. New York is a very expensive place, and even though we can get an FHA loan, we still need financing to even put a down payment on a house. Besides that, we need to grow our network and to find people to help guide us in the right direction.

I feel like step one would be to join some REIC's to expand our network, so my first question is, does anybody know of any REIC's in New York that are free or affordable to someone who doesn't make much money?

Also, does anybody have any advice they would like to share about getting started? Especially for getting in through the FHA Buy and Hold route?