NEWBIE INVESTOR

;DHELLO YO EVERYONE, I AM NEW TO INVESTING, AND WOULD LIKE TO HEAR SOME FIRST TIME STORIES FROM VET. INVESTORS. I AM ABOUT TO COME INTO SOME GOOD MONEY AND WOULD LIKE TO GET INTO REI. AND SOON BE ABLE TO QUIT MY JOB AND DO IT FULL TIME. I HAVE BEEN RESEARCHING ONLINE AND BOUT A FEW GOOD BOOKS, NOTHING EXPENSIVE. I AM GOOD AT REHABBING AND I HAVE A GOOD EYE FOR DESIGN. I AM EAGER AND CAN HARDLY SLEEP AT NIGHT. WHEN I SHARE WITH MY WIFE ABOUT ALL THE RESEARCH I HAVE FOUND AND SHARE WITH HER MY CONCERNS AND STUFF, SHE TELLS ME THAT I AM MAKING IT TOO HARD. WELL AM I, AND WHAT ARE SOME GOOD TIPS AND ADVICE.

THANKS,
WG FROM LA.

Not to say that I am a vet by any means, but you will be able to read opinions of how to “Break In” till the cows come home.

Just go fire it up at your local meeting (http://www.reiclub.com/real-estate-clubs.php), but go buy some of that business card paper first, print out some basic cards… just go start talking to the people in your area who are working on what you want to be working on, and you’ll be amazed as to how much more it makes sense when your eye to eye.

Best of luck!

Here’s another tip: Don’t post in ALL CAPS. It is considered to be YELLING. Aside from that, you should write down your goals. Do you intend to flip the property once you have acquired it or hold it for positive cash flow and future appreciation?

Once you determine what it is you want to do, then do your research in those areas. Your wife is correct. Keep it simple. Best of luck to you.

Da Wiz

Sorry, don’t mean to yell. I am a drafter so I’m used to writing in caps all day.
Any ways, at first I want to “fix and flip”. After a while I would like to hold a few houses for cash flow and maybe a retirement fund. I also thought that if I miscalculated on repairs and only broke even, maybe it would be wise to hold it for a while instead of cutting my loss and flipping it. I also am unsure about renting at this point, I have heard a lot of horror stories. I guess I will see when I get out there. Thanks for all of your advice.

Sounds like you are indeed a good candidate to eventually get involved with some fix and flips. I can’t say that I have any hands on experience myself, but as a college student looking to get into REI soon, I have been doing a lot of research. I’ve been working on a crude website as a way to contain all this information, and I have a fix and flip page that has some info on the ideal fixer upper, things to avoid, and some of the top value-added repairs. There are also some links to other resources on this topic. Hope this is useful!

;DThanks, msavage for the website. It has some great advice. Thats the nice thing about this forum. There is so much to learn, it is great to get advice from other rei. ;D