Newbie questions

[peterw20]

Background info: I’m only 18 and starting college next week, at Southern Illinois in Edwardsville (which is only 20 minutes away from St. Louis), so I might be a little overly ambitious but I might as well learn now.

I was thinking of trying to get into the real estate investing this year, mainly doing foreclosures, well primarily preforeclosures. I found and read Making Big Money Investing in Foreclosures without Cash or Credit by Peter Fonti in about 3 days after getting it and the book made it sound reasonable but I don’t know how well I’d do with the way the market is today. Of course when I move there I was planning on joining the local real estate investment club, that meets basically 20 minutes away. I was also thinking of contacting some realtors in the area to see how the market is down there and the forecast of the upcoming months.
Does that sound on the right track? I do have some questions though even though they may not apply to me now, I’d like to know after reading that book…

Say, for instance, I found, and was negotiating a deal to buy a house from someone who is in preforeclosure. Fro reading the book and some posts on here, I should already be looking for a buyer. That sounds hard, unless you were going to wholesale it to a rehabber you know, since most people normally want to see a house before they buy it. How does this happen?

Nest question: What books do you recommend me reading?

Final question for now: What do you make of this economic state, and how much longer will it fall, and what do you think the repercussions of whatever happens will effect the real estate market in 3,6,12, and even 72 months from now, and how that can be beneficial to me- if there are even any benefits?

Thanks
Peter

[chandabb]

In response to your question about books, see the link to the left for Recommended Reading.

[Huntman1]

There are a lot of great books out there that will make for great reading. What you really should be carefull of is becomming a professional book buyer and not an investor. Books and tapes are great but there is NO secret weapon in the game of REIng.

I would suggest that you read the “Principle of Real Estate.” This is a text book that agents study to get their licence. This will give you the basic nomenclature of real estate.

Second I’d read an escrow text. This is so you can be familiar with the escrow title and closing process.

As for a book on real estate investing, I’d say do not pay more than $20 bucks on any book or course. You don’t need to just yet. You are learning the game at this point. No need in going broke by buying some fancy “boot Camp” for big $$$$. It will be a waste of your money and time.

I don’t want to break any rules on this forum by pitching material that is not featured on this site. Shoot me an email, we can talk more.

Take care,

[guardianrem]

@pocket23

I’ve had the best success recently focusing on sellers with houses that have big 2nds that are in default. They usually have close to zero equity and the sellers can’t sell the house so they’re easy to pick up subject-to, and the 2nds are easy to discount down to $500 or $1000 because those lenders know they get nothing if the house goes to the foreclosure sale. It’s the best of both worlds for the investor, the house is easy to buy and the note is easy to discount and create a big gob of equity.

That is a great idea pocket. Do you use the same NOD lists to find this, then only go after seconds in default? or is there another way you get your list?