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No problem. There are a ton of great books out there. As with REI itself, there is no right way to go about educating yourself.


REI, at least in my experience and on the scale I'm operating, isn't as brutally complex from a mathematical/formula perspective as I first imagined. You obviously need to know how to analyze a deal, but you don't need to memorize every last little formula as I originally thought I would. As they say, "keep it simple stupid". Middle school math and excel for the more detailed formulas and breakdowns cover most of it.


The most important skills to have IMO and based on my experiences thus far are:


1.) Healthy dose of common sense


2.) "HOW not IF" mentality to problem solving


3.) Emotional intelligence (ability to read ppl & situations and react accordingly). Or basically ppl skills.


You can thus see why some say real estate investors are the "blue-collar" millionaires. And why, at least IMO, the mindset books like RICH DAD POOR DAD and THINK AND GROW RICH are just as important as the REI specific books.


I would also recommend you try to educate yourself on estimating rehab costs. That is the other area that almost all newbies (except those with construction background) struggle. And it is one of those things where you can't really cheat experience. I read every book under the sun and thought I had it licked, but boy was I wrong. The fact that both labor/material costs differ from market to market makes it difficult to extrapolate costs from one market to another.

One thing I have found extremely helpful though are the Craftsman Estimator books. They aren't designed for investors, but rather contractors to help them better estimate jobs. But that is exactly what you want in REI, always to be seeing things from the other person's shoes. If I want to be accurately predicting what Contractors are going to charge, then what better way than using the same information and system to generate Estimates that they do? It takes actual costs from contractors across the entire country, takes into account different geographical areas, and applies those costs to every line item you could possibly imagine in all avenues of construction. It also extrapolates costs in form of man-hours. So for example, if you have 1000 SF of laminate to install. You can know how long it takes your AVG Flooring Installer in your region to install 100 SF of laminate. Knowing that info and the avg cost (including markup, insurance, etc.) for flooring installer, you have everything you need. If you get a bid, multiply (Manhours required on avg to complete items in SOW) x (Avg. Cost of Individuals Performing Those Costs) = ROUGH IDEA OF WHAT REHAB SHOULD COST. And then if you have a handyman who is working on hourly rate, you have an idea of how long it should take him to perform the tasks you assign him.


I've included a link below as they can probably explain it better on their site than I can. Amazon doesn't have preview for them, but if you Google book titles, you can find free PDF samples pretty easily so you can get an idea for how things are broken down inside.


https://www.amazon.com/National-Repair-Remodeling-Estimator-2017/dp/1572183314/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1572183314&pd_rd_r=QGKDB03AJHGKRTS6KJH1&pd_rd_w=kYkQp&pd_rd_wg=CfVpC&psc=1&refRID=QGKDB03AJHGKRTS6KJH1

https://www.amazon.com/National-Home-Improvement-Estimator-2017/dp/1572183276/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1572183276&pd_rd_r=R2XCBZ0ET9KYVSASDE6P&pd_rd_w=tBLoF&pd_rd_wg=ZDqUd&psc=1&refRID=R2XCBZ0ET9KYVSASDE6P

These have been a HUGE asset for me in not getting one put over on me by contractors giving me quotes. Even to the point where I got licensed as a GC and I've been able to bring parts of the rehab crew in-house and have my own full-time crew of W-2 guys to rehab my properties. We are actually have our systems set up to the point, where I'm in process of expanding business to rehab properties other than just my own. Have a GC/Project Manager I've groomed who will largely handle that piece, which will provide me an additional income stream that I can live off of and invest in REI. None of that would have been impossible had I not had the cost book as I have no experience or cost history of my own to base estimates on. I have also developed some mutually beneficial relationships with other GCs and contractors who have acted as a "big brother" to me throughout, which has also helped. But that goes back to #2) PROBLEM SOLVING (No experience, how do I offset that weakness) and #3) PEOPLE SKILLS (how do I convince these people to take the time to help and advise me).

If I were you I would get a list of every single property management company in your area and try to get a job with them. At your age if you tell them you want to start a career in real estate I'm sure one of them would love to hire you for grunt labor while teaching you the ropes. It may not be the most glamorous pay or work, but you're there to learn. It's basically like getting paid to go to school and study something you're actually interested in.

Other than that...binge watch a bunch of Graham Stephan on YouTube. He gives a lot of good tips around building your credit and reducing your living expenses so you can save money to invest. The cheapest way to build credit is to use no-fee credit cards. The caveat there is that you need to pay the credit card off in full every single month to avoid paying interest. That is how it is free. All other loans (car, student, vacation, etc) will incur interest charges no matter what. If you do not already have the money to buy something, do not charge it to a credit card. Treat the credit card like cash. Also, a debit card from your bank is not the same thing as a credit card. Make sure you're using a credit card.

Binge watch/listen to the Bigger Pockets podcasts as well. A word of warning though...don't let some of the people motivate you to do crazy and stupid things. Some of their guests have been downright reckless in my opinion. Any of them where you see that they somehow acquired 100 properties in 12 months...yeah don't listen to those people. They're incredibly leveraged and at massive risk of failure in the slightest market downturn. The only reason they've been able to make that house of cards work so far is because the real estate market has been in a bull market run since around 2009-2010 when the market hit rock bottom after the financial crisis.

ADDITION EDIT: Thanks for the gold! Also, check out Buy It, Rent It, Profit (Updated Edition). It's a great read for getting a decent overview of the various steps as far as evaluating which properties to buy, how to buy them, and how to manage them.

I have recently published a great ebook on real estate investing. The book is invaluable for beginners as well as seasoned real estate investors. The aim of the book is to show investors how to make substantial income via property rental, what the different types of property investments are, how to find the right property, how to find tenants and how to screen your prospective tenants. By the end of the book, you will be in an excellent position to take further action toward earning passive income from real estate. It's currently free for a limited amount of time! If you enjoyed the book and received value and benefit from it, I would like to ask you to leave a review. Feel free to share it with anyone who you think might be interested. Thank you very much and I wish you all best with your investments.

If you're just starting out, the best thing to do is find someone locally who is doing what you want to do. Learn from them. Offer to help find them deals. To buy and hold, you'll need money. If you can build up cash and get experience first, it will help when you are ready to buy and hold down the road. You can find other real estate investors at your local real estate investment club and by driving neighborhoods you're interested in. Find "For Rent" signs and homes that are being worked on. Ask around. If there are contractors on site, ask to talk to the owner or investor. Hope this helps. If you're interested in learning more, I wrote a book on how to find your niche as a real estate investor. Good luck!

Assuming you're starting from scratch, and without repeating what /u/Laser45 already said, definitely read up on whatever books you can get your hands on, and avoid Gurus. (Very, VERY few classes are worth their cost) This is one of my all time favorites, which you should be able to get as a freebie on an Audible trial:

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor
by Gary Keller
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370

If you have $30k in savings, I would recommend looking into putting that into a high-yield checking account - such as: Kasasa Cash (4% APY, 7.5k cap [1]), LMCU (3% APY, $15k cap [2]), Option1 CU (4% APY, 10k cap [3]). Links below.

Biggerpockets is good... but beware ALOT of it is fluff, and not all of it is accurate. Worse - much of what is presented is shown and appears alot easier to execute and implement than it actually is. Many people lose sight of the fact that - when they wholesale, do subject-tos, drive-for-dollars, etc. - they are essentially building a new business from scratch and applying ALOT of time and elbow grease... with very little protective "moat" that prevents the competition doing the same. Even if you're complete / have done your first deal - does the profit on a $/hr basis make sense, or did it make more sense to better educate yourself at your main line of work (or even get a second job)?

Ultimately, you have to decide if you want to be an "investor" - or - if you want to "buy another job." Always quantify your options, make sure the $/hr figure makes sense - and of course, make sure you feel 100% comfortable with it.

---

[1] https://www.pelicanstatecu.com/accounts/personal-checking/index.html
[2] https://www.lmcu.org/banking/checking/checking_max.aspx
[3] https://www.option1cu.org/personal/Checking/edge-checking

You'll probably find "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" to be a very good read. It talks about a lot of different real estate concepts that are still very applicable today. I particularly enjoyed his thought process on how to identify a good real estate opportunity and how leverage in real estate can make you wildly successful in real estate investing.

There's also a very good answer that I found on Quora relating to real estate investing that you might find interesting.

I buy all my properties (12 units) long distance since I am in a similar situation to you - I live near DC.

To keep it simple, the #1 thing you need to do is build a team of pros that will help you. Since you're not there, you need people who could do everything without needing you there.

The most important person on your team is your Realtor since they in turn could help you build the rest of your team. You want someone who does a lot of volume in the area and preferable invests in real estate themselves. You'd be surprised how little realtors know about investing unless they actually experienced it. Check out Zillow reviews for good realtors. More reviews the better.

I was actually going to write a book on it until someone beat me to it. I've read it and it's pretty spot on. He uses checks and balances with different people on his team to make sure everyone goes as planned. I have a family member close by who manages my renovations so I have a slight advantage.

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-Real-Estate-Investing-State/dp/0997584750

HA! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING THROUGH!

My wife and I literally had this exact experience when we moved into a rental a few years ago. Touring it, it smelled like curry, but it was around dinner time. But moving in, HOLY SHIT it was intense. The indian family that had been there before us had been there for years, and despite having it cleaned, it smelled so strong.

Here's what we did. Clean everything in the kitchen (and beyooonnnnddd) with a strong degreaser. The style of indian cooking in oil led to a lot of residual grease on EVERYTHING (kind of like stir frying really).

Then, wash everything with this. I learned from a professional painter that this deals well with odors, and it took care of the curry smell.

I said wash everything. EVERYTHING. Walls, ceiling, floors, etc. Might need a few rounds.

Edit: we didn't have any carpets. But used this exact process on tile, on the walls, on the ceiling, on the wood cabinets, on the windows, etc. You get the idea. If you have carpets... God help you.

There are a few schools of thought. On one side is the BRRRR method, where you leverage your properties to build your portfolio. Its riskier, but allows you to build quickly.

Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947200089/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JQSHDbXM4BE7R

The other end of the spectrum is Dave Ramsey's method, of paying cash in full for all your properties. It ties up your cash, but, if the market takes a down turn, you can afford to rent it out for the then market rates. Its far less risky, and slow to start, but most of your rental income is profit. And once you get a few paid for properties, the income starts rolling and you can build as big as you want.

The Total Money Makeover Workbook: Classic Edition: The Essential Companion for Applying the Book's Principles https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400206502/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_8SSHDbWCFDPG8


This one was on a list of recommend books

The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing! https://www.amazon.com/dp/099071179X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_yoSHDbKZR7WT0

This is not a current book but it is still my all-time favorite as far as getting stoked and motivated about WHY real estate works so well for wealth building. My only disagreement is this guy is comfortable with higher debt levels than I am. Other than that, it's an awesome book which explains why and how you should invest in real estate.

(Kindle version is $13.)

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Estate-Riches-Bankers-Advisors/dp/0446678643

Here’s a great book on the topic. It covers how to raise equity, how to structure your partnership, and will help you realize what resources you’re going to need. Good luck!

Raising Private Capital: Building Your Real Estate Empire Using Other People's Money https://www.amazon.com/dp/1947200984/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_j-QNBbF9WRXP2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/099071179X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I just finished this book and it's outstanding. I couldn't put it down. It's packed with great information and there is even an index of forms in the back to give you an idea/template of what you will need. The author is the guy from the 'bigger pockets' podcast and he covers in good detail what you'll need to know.

I’m wrapping up a book on long distance real estate investing and I think it sounds like a pretty feasible thing to do. The book: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-Real-Estate-Investing-State/dp/0997584750.

His basic thesis is that with current technology you can set up a system and team that will allow you to avoid the pitfalls associated with being far away from your investment. He suggests finding a realtor, property manager, contractor, and lender in the given location and using them as your eyes on the ground, while also using each of them as a check on the other (e.g. if your realtor tells you a house will make a great rental, make sure you run it by your property manager).

The big advantage is that you get to pick a market that suits your real estate investing goals. I’m in a major metropolitan coastal city so it’s basically impossible to find properties that will cash flow with the amount of money I have to invest. That’s not true in many other parts of the country, including several that are expected to see population and economic growth.

I found the book to be a little repetitive and not particularly well written, but well worth the $16.

If you're doing this get a good CPA who has real estate knowledge.

Morris Invest has an incredible podcast that covers all sorts of topics like this.

Also Tom Wheelwright who is featured on the podcast a lot has a great book on this called Tax Free Wealth.

https://www.amazon.com/Multi-Family-Millions-Reposition-Apartments-Profits/dp/0470267607


David Lindahl. Great stuff.

For rentals this is a good overview..

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Rental-Property-Investing-Passive-ebook/dp/B018UTI2DO/ref=nodl_

Matter fact, recommend listening to bigger pockets podcasts too

I'm in a similar situation. I live near Los Angeles City. The price to rent ratio is like 0.3. I have been reading David Greene's book, Long Distance Real Estate investing

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-Real-Estate-Investing-State/dp/0997584750

This book is very good, admittedly I haven’t actually done it yet but I’m planning on it.

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-Real-Estate-Investing-State/dp/0997584750

Check out this book from David Greene: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-Real-Estate-Investing-State/dp/0997584750

While I haven’t jumped on his strategies just yet, I plan to for my first multi-family purchase as living in Boston anything over 2+ units is crazy expensive. Really really good read.

Gross profit return or gross property rent. Read this

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Rental-Property-Investing-Intelligent/dp/099071179X/ref=nodl_

READ THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU DO A DAMN THING.

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Distance-Real-Estate-Investing-State/dp/0997584750