Finding Your Unfair Advantage, Rural Investing, and Getting Started with Tom Sylvester

In This Article

On today’s episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast, we cover a huge variety of really interesting topics with real estate investor Tom Sylvester (yes, that rhymes!)

Tom has been investing in the Rochester, NY area for several years and has a great perspective on getting started, building systems to manage your business, investing in rural areas (or as Brandon says, “rrrrrurrral”,) and a whole lot more.

Don’t miss a second of this excellent interview!

Read the transcript for episode 45 with Tom Sylvester here.

Listen to the Podcast Here

In This Show, We Cover

• Tom’s early lessons
• The advantages and disadvantages to rural investing
• Finding mentors and networking
• Talking with your spouse about getting started with real estate
• Getting started with real estate at a young age
• When is the right time to quit your day job?
• Red flags for problem tenants
• The $10 Toilet part that could have saved Tom hundreds of dollars
• And much more.

Links from the Show

• Investing in Rural Markets: The Secret to Real Estate Investing Success?
• The Top 100 Ways To Make Money In Real Estate
• How to Get Started With $100 blog post by Tom
• Keyword Alerts
• How To Survive When Your Spouse Doesn’t Believe In Your Dream
• How to Start Investing In Real Estate at a Young Age (or a “Young at Heart Age”)
• BP Podcast 044: Creating Systems to Flip Houses While Still Employed with Michael Woodward
• Tenant Screening: The Ultimate Guide
• Cashflow 101: Using the Game to Define Your Investing Strategy
• Home Depot Toilet Fill Valve
• Dropbox App

Books Mentioned in the Show

• The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• The Book on Flipping Houses by J Scott
• The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott
• What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow… And 36 Other Key Financial Measures by Frank Gallinelli
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing by BiggerPockets

Tweetable Topics

Find your unfair advantage in business and exploit it. (Tweet This!)

What do you want your life to be? How are you going to get there? (Tweet This!)

If you aren’t finding success – be persistent but change your tactic. (Tweet This!)

Know the difference between a cheap property and deal. (Tweet This!)

Connect with Tom

Tom’s BiggerPockets Profile
Tom’s Website: Tom-Sylvester.com

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.