6 Expert Tips for Investing in Real Estate
Are you a beginner investor seeking essential real estate investing tips from experienced professionals?
To help you in your endeavors, we at HouseCashin reached out to six professional real estate investors. We asked them for advice on how best to learn real estate investing in the beginning of your career.
And here is the insight they shared with us.
6 Real Estate Investing Tips for Beginners
Let’s start with the list summarizing the most important key points taken from the experts’ answers.
- Build a network of various professionals involved in real estate transactions and other stages of property investing projects (contractors, other investors, insurance agents, Realtors, etc). Help them when you can. In return, they can be your source of lucrative deals and provide other help.
- Learn things on demand, as you go. Educate yourself on the next step right before you need to take it. Avoid getting lost in other information that you don’t need at the moment.
- Find a real estate investing mentor who guides you through each step. Make sure the mentor is an active investor themselves rather than just a “guru”.
- Learn from other specialists involved in different stages of investing projects: contractors, local hard money lenders, attorneys, title companies, brokers, etc.
- Be serious about saving money. Lack of funds is one of the main obstacles for starting an investing career.
- Use educational content available online and in books on a regular basis. Learn something new every day.
Below are the full answers from each expert.
Expert Advice from 6 Professional Real Estate Investors
Henry Angeli III, Henry Buys Homes LLC
I can tell you from experience that the best way to learn real estate investing as a beginner will actually involve several approaches.
First, grow your network with other real estate professionals — from lenders to contractors, other investors, insurance agents, realtors, etc. — by attending every real estate networking event that you can find in your area. Relationships are everything in real estate and if you don’t have good ones built, it will make it impossible to succeed as an investor.
You should be telling everyone what you do (or will be doing) as an investor, so that they are aware. Expanding your network will help you grow a power team of relationships to help you succeed in the business, and these will be people that you can hit up later for questions as opportunities arise that may be able to benefit many.
Second, you can learn a lot on your own from YouTube, Bigger Pockets, etc., but if you want to learn quickly with fewer mistakes, find a good mentor and even pay for education to shorten the learning curve. Lack of knowledge and making mistakes is a lot more costly than paying for that knowledge and guidance from experienced investors.
The best way to do this is to find out what is considered a deal, depending on the exit strategy to profit, whether it is wholesaling, flipping, rental properties, lease options, etc., and then find an opportunity and present it to an investor.
If it’s a deal, that investor will typically compensate you somehow to get that deal and mentor you through the steps to get it to closing. Some investors may charge nothing and actually mentor you for a percentage of the profits on that deal (my favorite way!) where everyone wins!
Rilbio, Brevard Property Solutions
When getting started, it is best to take one action at a time and learn things ON DEMAND. For example, buy some bandit signs, put your message, name, and number on them and PUT THEM OUT.
Now that you’ve taken action on generating leads, find material that will teach you how to talk to and QUALIFY your leads. I first learned with a book called “FLIP” by Nick Ruiz.
Next, learn what a DEAL looks like and understand what repair costs are. The easiest way is to use a scale of $5 (good shape), $15 (moderate), $25 (bad), $45-55 (gut). Multiply that dollar figure by the square footage of the property and there’s your ballpark estimate for repairs. It doesn’t have to be exact. Hell, 9 out of 10 buyers will do their own repair estimate.
Lastly, find a good title company and REAL BUYERS. Don’t be afraid to ask how many deals they’ve done, what their strategy is, their opinion on the home’s worth and the repairs needed, and most importantly, PROOF OF FUNDS.
One action at a time. Do not go until said action is completed. Always keep in mind ON-DEMAND learning. In this industry, it’s very easy to get caught in a rabbit hole of information that is not useful in the moment. It pays to be dumb and to do only what needs to be done in the moment.
Marshall Hatfield, CincyBuyer
To get over the initial hurdle as a beginner real estate investor, my advice is skip the gurus and go straight to the players.
You can get a mighty fine education by getting to know local movers and shakers in your market (who are often happy to give free advice on what they’d do in your shoes).
Depending on your experience level and access to capital, you’ll want to reach out and either (1) partner with, (2) learn from, or (3) work for, all of the following:
- Other investors (check BiggerPockets, REIAs, etc.)
- Property management companies
- Banks and credit unions (especially ones with real estate investment loans)
- Construction, renovation, and development companies
- Title companies and real estate attorneys
- Investor-friendly real estate agents and brokers
Call them all. Meet in-person. Learn their thoughts on local trends. Explain your own investing goals and note their feedback.
If you take the time to do all this, you’ll be LIGHT YEARS ahead of most “professionals” in the game!
David Freudenberg, David Buys Houses Florida
The best way to get started in real estate investing as a beginner is to learn from a mentor. Become friends with someone who is doing 5x the amount of deals you want to do in a year and offer to help them in any way that you can for free. This will give you a significant head start.
However, if you want to learn more, some good educators are Ron Legrand, Cody Sperber, and David Lindhal, to name a few. Treat real estate investing like a business, not a get-rich quick scheme. Be patient. The success will come.
B.J. Ward, Easy Sale HomeBuyers LLC
As a beginner, you should learn from other experienced real estate investors. Learn what they do, learn from their mistakes, and implement what they teach you to do.
Acknowledge that you will make mistakes starting out and learn from those mistakes. Stay consistent with marketing for houses and focus on one real estate investing niche for now.
Blake Choisnet, Rooted Land Co, LLC
I initially started with BiggerPockets podcast and website, and consumed a significant amount of their YouTube content. I began reading real estate material (including those about real estate licensing).
I eventually found the most value from Brian Elwood’s “12 Houses to Freedom” accelerator program and podcast.
How to Instantly Boost Your Start in Real Estate Investing
Deciding what type of investor you want to be from the very beginning is extremely important, as it should match the lifestyle you’re seeking to achieve.
Long-term rentals tend to be the easiest and most passive form, while flipping tends to be the most profitable but also requires a lot of work and risk.
Wholesaling is another strategy that consists of finding properties that can be purchased for under market price, signing a purchase contract with the seller, but instead of buying the house, assigning the contract to another investor who will buy the home and will pay you a fee. Learn more from our guide Real Estate Wholesaling 101 for Beginners.
For real estate wholesalers, one of the biggest risks is not being able to find a cash buyer for their property before the contract deadline. They need to be quick in this.
As for flippers and landlords, there is a saying that they make money the moment the property is purchased. They need to make a wise choice and the widest possible selection of investment opportunities.
Whatever property investing strategy you have chosen — wholesaling, flipping, or being a landlord — starting your career will be far easier with the online Investment Property Marketplace created for investors by HouseCashin. Here is why:
HouseCashin Investment Property Marketplace is a convenient platform for off market properties designed for investors with all their needs in mind saving you time and effort.
- Wholesalers can list their contracted deals to quickly find cash buyers looking for wholesale properties in their area.
- Fix-and-flip investors and landlords can look for undervalued properties listed by wholesalers, owners, or investor-friendly realtors.
HouseCashin marketplace is very different from popular online marketplaces designed to advertise homes to the general public. The functionality of our platform is tailored to investors: it enables buyers to easily estimate how lucrative a deal is and sellers to effectively market their deals.
Besides the normal indicators like size and ‘as is’ value of the property, the listing features after repair value, estimated profit potential, and other numbers helpful for estimating an investment project.
The platform also enables you to request financing from top-rated hard money lenders in your area. This is handy when you need a loan to buy a fix and flip property as a rehabber or get financing for an earnest money deposit as a wholesaler.
Finally, HouseCashin Investment Property Marketplace is a great tool to connect with other investors and form long lasting business relationships.
Using our marketplace helps investors find the most lucrative deals when buying as well as quickly find buyers when they need to sell.