How to get started in Real Estate Investing

What is the best way to get started in real estate? It could be flipping a house. It could be buying a duplex, living in one side, and renting the other out. Alternatively, it could be investing in larger commercial property with an experienced investor. Getting started could also mean learning the game. If you don’t know a single thing about real estate investing, it’s time to start learning.

If you don’t know anything about real estate investing but have the desire to get started, you can also get your feet wet by investing with other people. Invest your money with someone who does this every single day, who has the time and resources to get the right assets in the right locations, and properly manage it. A syndication is a great way to buy an asset and get started.

If you want to start small and learn by doing all the work yourself, that may work for you. A house flip is a great way to get started. You learn construction, project management, risk, debt, and a lot of tools that will expand your knowledge to go into a bigger deal next time. You could buy a duplex, rent one side and live in the other, or rent both sides out. Learning to manage a property will be very useful when you hire a management company down the road for a larger commercial asset.

If you want to learn from an expert, start following every move they make and study all they teach. That’s what I did. I spent 2 years learning then bought a 2 unit, and 4 more years of studying then bought a 6 unit. Make sure who you learn from practices what they preach. What do they do, not just what do they say? What stage in their investing career are they in? It may be different than when they started. Pay attention to everything when you are learning from an individual. Go to the top of the food chain. Learn from the most successful person you can find. If your goal isn’t to build an empire, then don’t study these types of people.

Also – I recommend you don’t stay in the same place. Always strive for better quality assets, and make it your goal to get the best product on the market and more units. You can only grow so much buying duplexes. But if you focus and grow, you can buy 100+ units at one address at a time.

The best way to get started in real estate is to take the information you know and take action. The best way is not sitting on the sidelines forever waiting for something to fall in your lap, because that won’t work in this industry. Unless you are far along in your career, have a huge network and deal flow, only then will deals fall into your lap after you put the work in.

Get started. It’s a long-term investment and the sooner you get started the better, so let time be on your side instead of working against you. Another great thing is it doesn’t matter how old you are. You can do this when you’re 18 or when you’re 80. Then, take what you make and roll it into the next deal. If you do this and repeat, you’ll be surprised how successful you can be! We greatly overestimate what we can do in the short run, but greatly underestimate what we can do in the long run. The more disciplined you are with your investments and money, the greater your empire can build.

The time to get started is now!