I’m currently a full time student at UCSB and enrolled in Real Estate classes. I am hoping to start a Real Estate Investing Education club when I return to school this coming fall, and could use some advice in the following areas:
My knowledge of real estate investing has some SERIOUS gaps in it. I think it comes from my being young and having a general lack of experience. What resources would you recommend I use (online, blogs, forums, books, conferences, etc.) to fill in those holes?
So far I have read some Rich dad poor dad books (ABC’s of real estate), and taken some classes on basics of real estate investing such as cap rates, calculating ROIs, etc. What other topics should I start learning about?
Do any of you have any recommendations on how to structure a Real estate investing educational club for young motivated students? If you had the option while in school for something like this, where would you have liked your education to begin?
Any learning resource recommendations would be unbelievably valuable to me as well as hopeful club members. I’m really starting from stage 0 here, so any and all advice would be amazing. Hopefully we can use this thread as a general “Beginners resources” thread if it generates enough replies…
Thanks guys! I really appreciate the help and advice and look forward to being an active participant on these forums.
Congratulations on your approach to this biz. You’re off to a good start by wanting to gain some know how and education. Many sources of info available, depending upon what you’re looking to learn. Just remember not to overwhelm yourself by trying to know everything from the jump. It’s not possible and you’ll end up confusing yourself in the process.
In addition to this board being a great source of info, check out Carbonare’s over at www.naked-investor.com.
Good luck.
Thanks for the tip AJ290. I’ll remember to pace myself. I’ve heard goal setting is important so that is one of the things I want to push in creating this club of sorts. As to my personal goal, it is to spend the first month of summer learning, and then begin the process of completing my first real estate investment transaction by the Fall of 2010. That should keep me from procrastinating too much
Why do you want to start an education club? My advice would be to learn the business yourself as you do deals. That is the easiest [process] to do it. Many of us on this board have done it and though it’s not easy, nor is the art of a deal always easy, it’s best to learn hands on by doing.
My goal is to do just that. However, I would like to offer the experience to fellow students at the university. This past year I created a club on entrepreneurship and tech startup and offered it to fellow students. In the process I learned an enormous amount as well as created a HUGE network of fellow students who will graduate at the same time, or 1 yr before/1 yr after me. The goal is to - yes - get hands on experience doing the deals (which will be a vital part of the club) but also to find a group of motivated peers who are interested in pursuing it with me. I see it as creating a team.
Part of the student mentality that I’ve found at my school is the field of dreams “if you build it they will come” mentality. Doing time intensive things like searching for real estate deals WHILE a F/T student WHILE working a P/T job requires persistence. The group mentality will entice people to join me as well as offer opportunities for growth and understanding that might be difficult or take longer for me to learn on my own.
Those are my thoughts on why I am setting this up as a group format. I’d appreciate your take on the above…
I guess my take is that you are creating another school within your school. Nothing wrong with that however you will, IMO spend WAY more time learning the business than actually doing it. It’s not like you need a degree to make good money in real estate. It is most likely one of the few areas of ‘top paying employment’ that does NOT require a boss (except Uncle Sam lol) or a degree…only knowledge.
You will find as you move into REI, that there are plenty of folks (a lot on this board) that have made learning it their career and doing it something that has yet to happen. That is what happens to most folks that ‘want to get into REI’.
Tony - I agree with you. I plan on doing my own transactions on the side at the same time. Lets keep in touch - by October I am hoping to have my first deal done. Perhaps you’d like to help me keep that goal?
