How to begin real estate investing journey?
New to Real Estate · Bozeman, MT · Member since 2024 · 38 posts · 7 votes
Hello BiggerPockets,
I am new to this community and excited to learn all I can about real estate. I am curious about wholesaling and sober living homes. What do you guys recommend to get started to learn about these strategies?
Thanks,
Dominic Jean
Dominic,
I usually tell all of my investors to start by doing a self check meaning get with a Mortgage Banker and crunch the numbers. Start by checking your ability to get a quick quote on a mortgage based on your credit, income and assets. It's much easier to buy a home and convert to a "Sober Living" or ALF type business if you already own the home versus trying to buy it as a commercial business.
Its also a much more cost efficient approach versus a nightmare "Subject to" contract or Owner finance where you open yourself up to other peoples problems like probate, litigation, seller remorse or unforeseen family drama last minute or after death of seller who is still holding note.
I just completed one for a client in Oregon who purchased it as a Second Home to put less money down and converted it after the fact and changed vesting to LLC. If you ever have questions feel free to check out my profile or send me an email. Always happy to help other Bigger Pockets members get on the right path to avoid lost time and money.
Dominic,
I usually tell all of my investors to start by doing a self check meaning get with a Mortgage Banker and crunch the numbers. Start by checking your ability to get a quick quote on a mortgage based on your credit, income and assets. It's much easier to buy a home and convert to a "Sober Living" or ALF type business if you already own the home versus trying to buy it as a commercial business.
Its also a much more cost efficient approach versus a nightmare "Subject to" contract or Owner finance where you open yourself up to other peoples problems like probate, litigation, seller remorse or unforeseen family drama last minute or after death of seller who is still holding note.
I just completed one for a client in Oregon who purchased it as a Second Home to put less money down and converted it after the fact and changed vesting to LLC. If you ever have questions feel free to check out my profile or send me an email. Always happy to help other Bigger Pockets members get on the right path to avoid lost time and money.
Hi Mr. Wray,
Thank you for the wonderful response. So you recommend buying a home and converting it to a ALF? What about sub-leasing or renting the home?
Thank you Mr. L,
If you had to get started in ALF or wholesaling how would you get going?
Hello BiggerPockets,
I am new to this community and excited to learn all I can about real estate. I am curious about wholesaling and sober living homes. What do you guys recommend to get started to learn about these strategies?
Thanks,
Dominic Jean
Hello BiggerPockets,
I am new to this community and excited to learn all I can about real estate. I am curious about wholesaling and sober living homes. What do you guys recommend to get started to learn about these strategies?
Thanks,
Dominic Jean
Hi Mr. Camara,
Thank you for the great response I appreciate it! I will reach out if I ever have any questions thank you.
Hello BiggerPockets,
I am new to this community and excited to learn all I can about real estate. I am curious about wholesaling and sober living homes. What do you guys recommend to get started to learn about these strategies?
Thanks,
Dominic Jean
The best way to start is by learning the basics of cash-flowing rentals first, even if it's just paper deals or analyzing MLS listings. If you're open to out-of-state options, a lot of new investors are pivoting to Midwest markets where you can grab duplexes and small multis well below replacement cost and actually cash flow from day one. That way, you can experiment with strategies, build experience, and see real numbers without overpaying or getting stuck in competitive local markets.
Hello BiggerPockets,
I am new to this community and excited to learn all I can about real estate. I am curious about wholesaling and sober living homes. What do you guys recommend to get started to learn about these strategies?
Thanks,
Dominic Jean
The best way to start is by learning the basics of cash-flowing rentals first, even if it's just paper deals or analyzing MLS listings. If you're open to out-of-state options, a lot of new investors are pivoting to Midwest markets where you can grab duplexes and small multis well below replacement cost and actually cash flow from day one. That way, you can experiment with strategies, build experience, and see real numbers without overpaying or getting stuck in competitive local markets.
Thank you Mr. Ahmed,
I appreciate the kind response.
Hey Dominic this is a great question and I would highly recommend starting with wholesaling either single-family rentals or commercial and multifamily properties. When first starting the most important thing is just to get the experience the reps and to take the time and to build the proper relationships and systems and processes that will help you reach your goals. Always study sales, marketing and negotiation tactics because you will use them later on. You may not have an idea of what you want to do when you first start off, but just by having the experience, networking with people, and educating yourself you will see where what you learned in applied knowledge to the field will greatly help you. Hope this helps.
Hey Dominic this is a great question and I would highly recommend starting with wholesaling either single-family rentals or commercial and multifamily properties. When first starting the most important thing is just to get the experience the reps and to take the time and to build the proper relationships and systems and processes that will help you reach your goals. Always study sales, marketing and negotiation tactics because you will use them later on. You may not have an idea of what you want to do when you first start off, but just by having the experience, networking with people, and educating yourself you will see where what you learned in applied knowledge to the field will greatly help you. Hope this helps.
Mr. Coleman,
Thanks for commenting on my question. So you recommend just getting experience and building key skills to help build the business?
Hey Dominic this is a great question and I would highly recommend starting with wholesaling either single-family rentals or commercial and multifamily properties. When first starting the most important thing is just to get the experience the reps and to take the time and to build the proper relationships and systems and processes that will help you reach your goals. Always study sales, marketing and negotiation tactics because you will use them later on. You may not have an idea of what you want to do when you first start off, but just by having the experience, networking with people, and educating yourself you will see where what you learned in applied knowledge to the field will greatly help you. Hope this helps.
Mr. Coleman,
Thanks for commenting on my question. So you recommend just getting experience and building key skills to help build the business?
Your welcome! Yes absolutely it will help you gain some clarity. Feel free to message if you want any more tips, always happy to help.
Hey Dominic this is a great question and I would highly recommend starting with wholesaling either single-family rentals or commercial and multifamily properties. When first starting the most important thing is just to get the experience the reps and to take the time and to build the proper relationships and systems and processes that will help you reach your goals. Always study sales, marketing and negotiation tactics because you will use them later on. You may not have an idea of what you want to do when you first start off, but just by having the experience, networking with people, and educating yourself you will see where what you learned in applied knowledge to the field will greatly help you. Hope this helps.
Mr. Coleman,
Thanks for commenting on my question. So you recommend just getting experience and building key skills to help build the business?
Your welcome! Yes absolutely it will help you gain some clarity. Feel free to message if you want any more tips, always happy to help.
Sweet thank you Mr. Coleman.
Hey Dominic this is a great question and I would highly recommend starting with wholesaling either single-family rentals or commercial and multifamily properties. When first starting the most important thing is just to get the experience the reps and to take the time and to build the proper relationships and systems and processes that will help you reach your goals. Always study sales, marketing and negotiation tactics because you will use them later on. You may not have an idea of what you want to do when you first start off, but just by having the experience, networking with people, and educating yourself you will see where what you learned in applied knowledge to the field will greatly help you. Hope this helps.
Mr. Coleman,
Thanks for commenting on my question. So you recommend just getting experience and building key skills to help build the business?
Your welcome! Yes absolutely it will help you gain some clarity. Feel free to message if you want any more tips, always happy to help.
Sweet thank you Mr. Coleman.
Your welcome man, anytime!
Hey Dominic,
Welcome and congrats on taking your first steps in RE Journey.
i would recommend below books to start with.
Strategy:
Rich man in Babylon
Robert Kiosaki
Real Estate Journey:
Ken McKelroy
Hey Dominic,
Welcome and congrats on taking your first steps in RE Journey.
i would recommend below books to start with.
Strategy:
Rich man in Babylon
Robert Kiosaki
Real Estate Journey:
Ken McKelroy
Hi Mr. Toluganti,
Thank you commenting you on here. Thanks for the advice I appericate it.
I'll give you the operator version, because the sober living part of your question is a different business than the wholesaling part, and treating them the same is where people lose money.
If you buy a house to run as a sober living yourself, you are not buying real estate. You are buying a staffing problem. The house is the easy part. The hard part is who works the overnight shift, what your intake standard is, and what happens at 3 a.m. when a resident relapses or a neighbor calls the police. I work those shifts — NOC staff, Night Shift Lead, BHT Supervisor, Director of Client Services across detox, residential, and sober living in SoCal — and the overnight is where this business actually happens. It's also the shift nobody puts honestly on a pro forma.
If you lease a house TO an operator instead, that's a different deal entirely, and your job becomes vetting: who works overnights and are they awake staff, what's the intake standard and will they hold it when a bed is empty, how do they document. I run documentation in KIPU — if an operator can't show you clean records and incident reports, you're not renting to a program.
Either way, before you buy or lease anything for this purpose, understand what the house requires every single night. The mortgage is the smallest problem in this business.
Happy to answer ops questions.