Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2020 · 5 posts · 3 votes
Greetings everyone,
I’ve finally decided that I want to start investing into rental properties to help gain financial freedom. I currently live in Oklahoma City and I work in Norman. As of right now I am deployed but I should be coming home in about 2-4 months. While being gone I have had the opportunity to read a few books and i want to take the next step.
I’m here for advice. What books do you all recommend that are must reads? What should I do before even thinking about trying to get a rental property? I need some guidance...
I am looking in the Lawton, OK and OKC metro areas. Feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to meeting you all when I get back. Thank you in advance.
Rental Property Investor · Victoria TX / Portland, OR · Member since 2019 · 94 posts · 96 votes
6y
Hello Lawrence,
Great choice to get into real estate investing. The best thing about investing today is that there is so much information available, absolutely free of charge. As you probably know, BiggerPockets is a great place to seek out information on anything you could possibly want to know.
As to books, go to Amazon, type in real estate, filter the search so you see the top customer reviews, and have at it. Really, you can't go wrong so long as you are continuing your education.
Me personally, I have found great information in the following books:
The Book on Rental Property Investing, by Brandon Turner
Buy It, Rent It, Profit! , by Bryan M. Chavis
Those are just two. The latter is informative in the sense of an instruction guide. Lot's of useful information. The former is a book published here on BiggerPockets, and if you check out the bookstore here, you'll find it along with a lot of other valuable reads.
What I recommend is that you take the time to make sure you understand what it takes to be a landlord, even if you plan on hiring a property management company. Figure out what makes a solid lease. Learn how to screen tenants.
You'll also want to learn the basics of finding deals. The last thing you want while hunting for financial freedom is to become incarcerated in a financial prison. You avoid this by running the numbers and learning how a lease covers your a**.
Better yet, figure out what you want to do with your real estate investing. What path do you want to take? What are your goals? Do you want to manage your properties, or do you want to rehab them? Or both? There are so many different ways to go about real estate. Educate yourself about what each facet entails, figure out which one you like the best, then narrow your focus and educate yourself and become a master.
If you have a passion for this, let that passion guide you down the path of education. Learn from others' mistakes. Don't get disheartened when you hear "no." Gain perspective, gain prosperity.
Rental Property Investor · Victoria TX / Portland, OR · Member since 2019 · 94 posts · 96 votes
6y
Hello Lawrence,
Great choice to get into real estate investing. The best thing about investing today is that there is so much information available, absolutely free of charge. As you probably know, BiggerPockets is a great place to seek out information on anything you could possibly want to know.
As to books, go to Amazon, type in real estate, filter the search so you see the top customer reviews, and have at it. Really, you can't go wrong so long as you are continuing your education.
Me personally, I have found great information in the following books:
The Book on Rental Property Investing, by Brandon Turner
Buy It, Rent It, Profit! , by Bryan M. Chavis
Those are just two. The latter is informative in the sense of an instruction guide. Lot's of useful information. The former is a book published here on BiggerPockets, and if you check out the bookstore here, you'll find it along with a lot of other valuable reads.
What I recommend is that you take the time to make sure you understand what it takes to be a landlord, even if you plan on hiring a property management company. Figure out what makes a solid lease. Learn how to screen tenants.
You'll also want to learn the basics of finding deals. The last thing you want while hunting for financial freedom is to become incarcerated in a financial prison. You avoid this by running the numbers and learning how a lease covers your a**.
Better yet, figure out what you want to do with your real estate investing. What path do you want to take? What are your goals? Do you want to manage your properties, or do you want to rehab them? Or both? There are so many different ways to go about real estate. Educate yourself about what each facet entails, figure out which one you like the best, then narrow your focus and educate yourself and become a master.
If you have a passion for this, let that passion guide you down the path of education. Learn from others' mistakes. Don't get disheartened when you hear "no." Gain perspective, gain prosperity.
I would start with Brandon Turner's book. It provides a nice overview and in fact, most of the BP books are well written and provide great info. I would also strongly recommend consuming as much of the BP podcast as you can. You can skip episodes that don't necessarily pertain to the approach you want to take (ie. wholesaling vs. buy and hold vs. flipping). I'm local and happy to help if you have any questions.
Rental Property Investor · Norman, OK · Member since 2018 · 43 posts · 23 votes
6y
Hi @Lawrence Bass, welcome! Lots of good advice so far. Though we've done live in flips before, we just started rental investing here in Norman/Moore last year. My advice for newbies:
1. Listen to the BP podcast as much as possible, choosing the relevant episodes like @Drew Eldridge suggested.
2. Read any recommended books, there's great info everywhere. You can get quite a few from the library for free on your phone.
3. Set up a report on Redfin or similar real estate search site to send you properties daily. Evaluate/analyze 5 properties every day to see how they would pan out if you were to buy them and rent them. If you don't know how to evaluate rentals, there is a webinar on how to do it here on BP that they do frequently.
These three things taught me a lot. Good luck, and thank you for your service!
Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2017 · 1k+ posts · 694 votes
6y
@Lawrence Bass I'm happy to answer questions about the OKC market/connect you with other investors that focus here. We can also review deals that recent investors are closing on and explore what made those good deals. Feel free to reach out!
Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2020 · 5 posts · 3 votes
6y
@Daniel A. Thank you for your feedback and advice! I’ve read one of the books you suggested but I will read the other as soon as it arrives (I just ordered it).
Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2020 · 5 posts · 3 votes
6y
Thank you @Drew Eldridge, I’ll make it a point to listen to the podcast and learn from them. I appreciate your advice and I look forward to meeting you in the future.
Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2020 · 5 posts · 3 votes
6y
Thank you @Meredith Burt, as soon as I read your comment I went to Redfin and did exactly what you suggested. I appreciate your advice and look forward to learning more from you.
Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2020 · 5 posts · 3 votes
6y
@Alyssa Dyer thank you for reaching out and offering some guidance. That would help so much if you could help me understand why a deal works out so well and why something wouldn’t. Thank you again