Buy and Hold Investor · Cranston, RI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
7y
Matthew, what are your goals? Do you want to fix properties up and then sell them (flipping)? Or become a landlord for long term rents income? Or find cheap deals and then pass them on to others for a finder’s fee (wholesaling)?
If you don’t know, I usually recommend new people buy a two family and lightly dip their feet into landlording, since it’s a skill that can be useful for the rest of your life and it also indirectly helps with wholesaling since many of your potential buyers will be landlords and it’s really helps to understand the mindset.
I’d also suggest finding local real estate groups in RI and Mass and make friends with other new investors, maybe a few slightly more experienced ones, and help each other out, learn from them, etc.
Buy and Hold Investor · Cranston, RI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
7y
Matthew, what are your goals? Do you want to fix properties up and then sell them (flipping)? Or become a landlord for long term rents income? Or find cheap deals and then pass them on to others for a finder’s fee (wholesaling)?
If you don’t know, I usually recommend new people buy a two family and lightly dip their feet into landlording, since it’s a skill that can be useful for the rest of your life and it also indirectly helps with wholesaling since many of your potential buyers will be landlords and it’s really helps to understand the mindset.
I’d also suggest finding local real estate groups in RI and Mass and make friends with other new investors, maybe a few slightly more experienced ones, and help each other out, learn from them, etc.
If you're new to RE, then I'd suggest spending a significant amount of time educating yourself. In addition to reading books and listening to podcasts, I'd highly recommend attending the free Webinars on this site. The learning portion of your journey will never end, but it's essential to learn the fundamental basics before diving into this business. It's exciting once you know what you're getting into...and potentially a huge disappointment if you don't. Start networking with others who have been doing this for a year or so, as they were in your shoes just a short time ago and can relate to where you are at this point in your RE endeavor.
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Rental Property Investor · Providence, RI · Member since 2016 · 26 posts · 18 votes
7y
Welcome to Rhode Island !!
One of the things I did to get to better understanding of the area is to speak with the locals. I would tell people I'm looking for a place to live and see what they recommend. This gave me an idea of the reputation of each city. I would take it with a grain of salt but sometimes perception is reality and if you speak to enough people you can get an idea of what each town is like.
Once you settle on a few areas for consideration, one of my favorites is just to walk around the neighborhood and see who's out and about and ask their opinions. The best are older, retired people who have been there for a while. They will be happy to talk your ear off about how the area has changed and how it's trending. You'll need a bit of time but they have great information.
As you said, you can get a lot of different opinions that way and you have to take each person's perspective into account, but with enough data you do start to notice commonalities and build a picture in your mind about what's happening with different areas.
(A recent example is that I continue to hear more not-great things about Warwick than great ones, I'd love that to change but it is what it is, so I'd rather deal with reality and know how things are trending.)