All Forum Posts by: Justin Johnson

First of all, welcome to BP @Adam Roberts.  Beware of analysis paralysis!  As I was starting to study, I felt very overwhelmed with how much information there is and how much I need to know.  After reading a bunch of blogs, posts, watching videos, googling, I ran across the book "How to Invest in Real Estate" (https://www.biggerpockets.com/store/how-to-invest-in-real-estate-ultimate) and decided to buy it and read through it in a few days (reading it again).  One of the key points is focusing on what you want to do, the "niche".  Setting a goal to buy my first investment property in X months from now really helped clear up the information overload I was experiencing.  Now, while I'm reading and researching, I am focusing on what I plan to do without having to feel overwhelmed that there are 10,000 different strategies!  All that to say: Figure out what you want to do, dig in and learn everything you can about that, make it happen (take action).

Good luck in your journey!  You have a ton of people with so much knowledge and experience here at BP, you got this!

@Eskindrias Tegegne welcome to BP! 70%...that's amazing! Newbie here as well looking for my first deal. I found a local REIA group here in my area by googling. As far as which one, I would say just go! Find one close and go, if you go there and it's a flop and you made one connection that you can network with then it's a success. I was blown away by the first REIA meeting that I went to. As soon as I walked in the door, about 5 people immediately came up to me, introduced themselves, handed me cards, and were genuinely interested in talking to me and knowing what I was looking for.

Hey, @Josh Kravets, welcome to BP!  I would love to learn more about finding out about the distressed properties.  There are several properties in my area that I have watched for months and have never seen anyone there (except maybe once every 3 months to mow the lawn).

Welcome to BP @Charles Noble III.  If you haven't already, check out the guides: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides There is a wealth of knowledge there that can get the brain to thinking and exploring things.

Are you attending the local REIA meetings in your area? This is such a great way to network and get connected to people in your area who know your market and can help you learn or get you connected to other people.

@Brian Kolb welcome to BP!

This is something that I have been thinking about a lot as I am looking through properties and analyzing deals.  Since I am considering a house-hack strategy right now, I will run the numbers with both me paying the utilities and the tenants paying their own utilities (minus garbage and maybe sewage) and I've made both work; however, I am leaning more towards having the tenants paying their own utilities for the many reasons that @Joe Arida listed.  I started looking at my bills and the fluctuations month to month would be too much of a headache to average out.  I don't like the idea of averaging utilities bills for someone and saying $200 a month for utilities and they end up using $350 then that money comes out of MY pocket and not theirs.

@Scott Bloomer welcome to BP, glad to have you on board.

@Sam Marquez, welcome and congrats on jumping in.

@Bryan Dumesnil, I can't agree more with @Courtney Fricke and @Kim Stofan about going to the REIA meetings. I made it a decision to find one in my local area and did some googling, I found an event that was about 5 minutes from my house and went. I made some amazing connections there that night including a mortgage lender (who was *highly* recommended by everyone at the meeting), a realtor, and two construction/rehab companies who are also investors. It turned out that the meeting wasn't just for local investors but a combo of local investors and city planners including the mayor and several other city groups. Was very insightful on where growth in the city was being focused and where people were buying/selling/renting houses.

You said you and your fiancee were interested in REI, set a goal for yourself and make that a priority: "In X months, I will buy my first investment property" was mine and it has really helped put things in perspective and helped me focus on what I need to know RIGHT NOW and not everything else that is interesting (which is a TON).

If you haven't, I recommend that you read through the guides here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides

Hi, @Cory Zach, welcome to BP!  The forums are a great place to start learning and connecting with people on BP.  The webinars are great, too.  If you haven't already checked out the guides, I highly recommend it: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides

I have been trying to find a local real estate club in my local area and am not have much luck so I was wondering how would I go about starting one in my city?  I feel that I don't have enough experience to organize one but I am willing to try, I am just not sure about how to go about setting one up and getting people to join/attend.  Any advice would be appreciated