All Forum Posts by: Grant Shipman

@Grant Shipman the Art of the Deal. Some of the old classics are best to start with.

Personally when I was working and working RE I did not have time to read casual books. 

You are better off forming relationships with people in the biz then reading books but nothing happens until you start doing.

 That my friend is all up to you. You should read about them all (but that may take a long time unless you are a fast reader).  In the very least, consume other sources of information, like the different BP Podcasts (last I checked they have over 700 episodes), Real Estate Rookie, etc.  to determine what you will like.  I also want to say that there is nothing wrong with the "Buy & Hold" method....that strategy has worked very, very well, for millions of people throughout history, and if you apply it well, will work wonders for you.

I'll leave you with one more thought:  Do you believe test-driving one car will do the trick or do you believe test-driving multiple vehicles before deciding which one to buy will do the trick?  Lastly, I'm gonna use an old, old cliche here which you have undoubtedly heard before: "You will never know what you like unless you try it."

I am currently rent-by-room house-hacking.

I was in a similar situation as you. There was very little supply and high demand for small multifamily properties in my market, so I turned to rent-by-room because you basically turn a single-family house (that costs less than a multifamily) into multiple "units" by having multiple tenants.

In our case, we just pay for all utilities and have the rents increased a bit to compensate. Otherwise, you'd have to get billed, then divide up the total, then bill the tenants. OR you would have to have one of the tenants get billed, then they would have to chase everyone else down every month for their portion. Just paying for utilities yourself is much less of a headache.

Yes, we have a rental agreement that is a little different than for a traditional long-term rental. The main difference is just that the lease describes their private areas (bedroom, private bath if applicable) and the shared areas (living room, kitchen, etc) and their responsibilities for each.

Something else to think about. It may be worth providing thinking about ways to reduce tenant conflict. For example, we label/assign all shelves in the fridge, pantry, and freezer. That way, it is less likely for someone's food to get stolen, AND when a roommate moves out, we can just sweep their whole shelf into the trash.
Also, we provide all shared supplies (toilet paper for shared bathrooms, dish soap, trash bags, etc). That way tenants don't have to worry about if it is their turn to purchase a supply.

Agreed, @Grant Shipman.  The responses above contain excellent advice to continue learning throughout one’s real estate journey.  But speaking as a very new investor, I spent years in analysis paralysis before taking any action.  Consuming new IG or podcast content is fun, but it’s a hit of dopamine you haven’t earned.  BP is an entertainment product as much as it is a community of investors.  Not a knock, just a reality of entertainment culture.  Better to read 1-3 books and take action than 10 books and do nothing.  

Also, I found that for my temperament, having the accountability and external processing capacity of a business partner was necessary to get me off my couch.

Thanks for your advice, everybody! 

Real Estate has many, many "winning plays". You can stick to one strategy and be successful. For example, you can LTR, MTR, or STR, you can flip, you can BRRRR, you can house hack OR.......you can combine any of these strategies for an overall winning combination. The problem in mastering 1 book is that you will never know about the other concepts/strategies that can make you successful.

I liken this example to a football team: You CAN be very successful by being just a "running team", or an "aerial team" or even a "defense first" team.  However, you can increase your chances of winning a game by being able to run, throw, kick and play defense very well.

How about stop reading books ( I never have read one on RE and have done it all ) and simply connect with those doing deals, learn then apply what you learn, Hands on Trumps books any day, 

Rental, buy right, fix right, rent, not rocket science 

Good luck 

You want to be well versed in real estate, you want to be able to see every situation and figure out the highest and best strategy for the property. If you're only good at flipping homes it takes you out of the running for a lot of deals.