How do I start investing in real estate?

Question

Overall I’m confused as to where I begin. I’ve read several books such as rich dad poor dad, rich dad’s cashflow quadrant, and currently reading more. But several questions still follow:

• Where do I connect with the team with the right mindset?

• How do I analyze deals like a professional investor?

•How do I take action and buy a real estate property and profit?

•Where do you find private lenders?

•Is it a bad thing if I have no money to start?

Ola Dantis · Answer

To answer your questions quickly:

• Where do I connect with the team with the right mindset? You don't need to. Just get started and all that would happen organically

• How do I analyze deals like a professional investor? Analyze your first deal and over the years (or 10,000 hours) you will become a professional investor

•How do I take action and buy a real estate property and profit? Buy your first property

•Where do you find private lenders? Ask 10 people on BiggerPockets AND Ask 10 people on the MeetUp group you are going to find today by searching real estate in Brooklyn on Meetup.com.

•Is it a bad thing if I have no money to start? Yes, not having money doesn't help BUT how much money do you need is the question. Maybe you need 3.5% down for your first home ($100k) - yes that home may not be in Brooklyn but somewhere else in Beautiful America! Go find that city and move there.

Starting your journey in real estate takes a lot of doing and sacrifices. Get started today!

Tomás Gonzalez · Answer

@Will Fraser basically I just want free time to live life. Monthly cashflow coming in from real estate investments would be awesome and especially to live in my own apartment. To have freedom of choice is my goals. It’s not necessary “for the money” but it’s more for “the way of life” with having freedom to do anything in life. That is my “why”. As for now do you recommend a job? Is it possible to invest in real estate with no job and have my investments as my income covering my desired way of life?

Griffin Schermer · Answer

Once you've figured out "why" you are getting into real estate. You need to keep educating yourself. Even being years in now, my team is still actively reading real estate related books and listening to BP podcast. This way even if you're not working on a deal you're still moving in the right direction.

When you're ready to really get into the thick of it and go after a deal you need to put together a criteria sheet for what you're looking for in a deal. Ex. I want a SF house under $100k, it can't be older than 1950's, and must have city utilities, etc.

1. You can meet and connect with team members through BP, social media, and you could do some research to find local companies in your desired area. This may take some time, phone calls, and email. You may need to work with multiple people before you really establish a team.

2. There's lots of videos on BP and Youtube that can show you how to analyze deals. When it comes to rehab estimates and such you may need to meet contractors at the property to get precision quotes for repairs to whittle down your numbers. There's also a great book called "The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs."

3. I'd go to google, type in "private lenders," and start from there. You may need to talk to multiple sources to find the right private lender for you. There's been lots of stories on BP with people calling 20, 30, 40+ lenders before finding the financing they are looking for. Don't get discouraged if the first few don't work out.

4. It's not bad to have no money. A lot of people have started with no money! Check out the book, "Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down" If you have friends or family they may become potential resources. BP has a community of people seeking more opportunities. You may even look into finding a mentor who can help give you some guidance and put an action plan together for deals.

Good luck!

Tomás Gonzalez · Answer

@Ola Dantis Thank you very much!

Sam Sala · Answer

I am from Brooklyn too, any meetups soon?

Tomás Gonzalez · Answer

@Griffin Schermer Thank you very much!

Tomás Gonzalez · Answer

@Will Fraser I’m broke but passionate.

Will Fraser · Answer

Hi @Tomás Gonzalez, welcome back to the Biggerpockets forums!

The place to start is with small actions in the right direction.  It's time to drill down deep and figure out what it is that draws you to real estate investing.  What are your goals for 5 years from now?  How about 30?  How does real estate investing play into that?

Once you are clear on your "why", you can get into the what.  Not having money IS an issue. . . . you don't necessarily need a lot, but you do need some, at least to live off of while you are pushing hard to learn and grow.

I'd recommend digging into your motivations, start saving money and building credit (if needed) towards the goal of buying a house-hack or partner with someone who is flipping or BRRRRing property to cycle your money back quickly and grow.

Go out there and get it!

How do I start investing in real estate?

Most Popular Reply