Recommended book for Newbies-NOT a "guru" book
This may be the best $10 or so you'll spend if you're thinking of jumping into REI, a darn sure better investment (for most of you) than any "guru" course. It's "Diary Of A Real Estate Rookie", by Alison Rogers. She was an experienced journalist and founding editor of the NY Post's RE Supplement.
She quit her job and decided to "get rich in flipping". Considering that she didn't drive, deciding to do this in the New Jersey suburbs seems a odd choice. However Newark prices had been going up 30%/year so it was a "can't miss" idea.
One of the most telling statements was on thinking REI was easy;
In my naiveté I didn't understand the extent to which I was looking for a needle in a haystack. If I had been willing to do this with my own capital and I could have taken lower returns, I could have done it. But I was looking for very high returns because I was trying to do this off of someone else's capital. And the very-high-return projects are indeed needles.
Another quote that could apply to a lot of people who have done well over the past 10 years or so.
And like many, many other people who rode the real estate bull market, I made a lot of money. And I thought I made a lot of money not because I was lucky but because I was a genius. That's a very common bull market mistake. You do a couple of successful deals and you're like, "It must be me."
One of the things that makes this such an easy read is her somewhat "comedic" style. It's got a lot of humor in it, much of it self-directed, which makes it enjoyable to read.
all cash