Wanna Know Where To Start???

As a newbie it is very hard to know where and how to get started…I’m posting this topic because I feel it needs to be touched on more and it will also get everyones juices flowing…If your going at it alone the first step is networking…Your already taking that step by posting on the forum. Also attend your local club meetings find out who the real players are…If your town is too small and doesn’t have those meetings, go through your paper and pick some of these investors brains…Some of them won’t even mind… Now of course it’s also good to DO YOUR HOMEWORK…Reasearch your market, develop a strategy and master it, go to seminars for information…Warning do not get overloaded with tapes and books…If you continue to order these things without help you will get even more confused as to how to get started…Nothing is wrong with being well informed but when you’ve got books piling up and still haven’t done your first deal your missing strategy… Now let’s talk about that for a moment…

Most people new to the business are in one of two situations…One they don’t have much money and their credit is not all that good but their willing to get their hands dirty or two they have money and the credit but still have yet to see a consistent way of getting profit because they are also stuck due to lack of knowledge…In this business it’s all about strategy and structure please correct if I’m wrong…

I suggest this: Start off with no risk techniques like owner financing and lease options–Lease Options is where I got started and had alot of great success…One reason being alot of investors didn’t want to touch it…I customized somethings and eliminated my competition…There is also flipping of wholesale properties and turning a profit…and yes it is legal…You just have to know how to structure the deal…There are also so many other ways find what fits you and master it…Start off with a few techniques first once you become really good at it advance yourself to other strategies. Alot of us make the mistake of trying to learn every and all the tecniques at one time and go out there and use every one of them… That will drive you crazy…

Your objective is to build up your CashFlow and at the same same time build a outstanding portfolio…This is a very broad industry don’t wear yourself out but be careful…Find your niche and once you do that you will see deals coming your way. To All The Newbies Out There GoodLuck!!

nice post

What I’d like to see is a large, detailed post that would focus on all the stuff newbies should concentrate on in this industry. It could then be “pinned” to the top of this forum by one of the moderators. Ideally, a wiki would serve a better purpose as people could continually update it and expand it into a one-stop source for everyone’s questions dealing with REI.

Your right but it is so hard to determine that because the industry is so broad and there are people in this field from all walks of life…We’ve all tried it but there is no one size fits all starting point. I wish it was it would make my job easier…To know what you should concentrate on you would have to find your niche and your strategy first…Then take the step of doing a little homework due to what you want to accomplish and master it…There are investors that do all types of techniques but we all have a specialty or niche (be creative)…We had to so we could get the ball rolling and get the results we wanted…

I agree 100%. It is impossible to answer every detailed question about REI, since areas, properties, and even people are so very different. However, there could be a generalized wiki (or whatever) catagorized by different niches, or whatever. I think this board gets hit with “I’m a newbie - where do I start” posts 10+ times/day on average. Now, nobody can tell each poster what they specifically need to do, but it would be beneficial to have a place where they can get generalized guidance. For example:

Education

  • Books
    • Landlording
    • Seller Financing
      • AITD
  • Audio Tapes/Files
  • Members’ Preferences

Tax Liens

  • Introduction
  • State-specific codes/guidelines

Seller Financing

  • AITD
    • Introduction
  • Contract for Deed

… and so on …

Of course the biggest problem implementing this would be time. Most people are limited in how much time they can put into such an undertaking.