Most of the time, it is hard to get the right information when you want them urgently. However, if you search in the right places you can get what you are looking for in no time. If you are looking for real estate investing information, then you should get your basic facts correct. What you should know real estate investing is not only about real estate deals or getting real estate investing information on how to market yourself, but a combination of everything put together.

Marketing yourself has some advantages, this way you can reach people and promote your business to them. Reaching out to the mass needs money, so if you are having a crunch or just started off then you can try online marketing too. Online marketing, and web in general, is an effective form of getting real estate investing information.

If you are on to real estate investing information gathering, then make a list of the online tools that you have in your arsenal. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Newsletters, Blogs and News feeders, and moving on to the Web 2.0 formats.

If you want real estate investing information on how to setup your office then the first thing you need to consult is a guidebook. Firstly, you need a large clear desk area. You need to keep it clear of any dumping. Phone and a Fax machine is the second element you need to have. A good computer is as good an asset you can get. However, the computer data needs backing up, so do you and if you forget backing up your valuable real estate investing information, then you are in for a shock.

Get the real estate investing information from the pro. You will get the tips and tricks as well as the secrets from them. You have to spend, rather, invest some money into you real estate business, no matter what your local investment expert says. Another real estate investing information you will get from the professionals is about the right time that one can invest in the market. One of course needs to take risks in this business but that should be backed by relevant information.

What information can you get from a good real estate investing book? There are a number of online sites, which can impart you knowledge and tips on how to start make your real estate investments properly. You can also get a number of books, which are essentially on the subject of real estate investing. You can search sites related to books on the net for information on real estate investing books.

If you go for an in-depth analysis of these real estate investing books, you will find that there are a number of chapters covering topics like - how to market your real estate investing business, the secrets of real estate investing, tips & tricks on real estate investing, how to follow business success of tycoon of other fields and how to grow in the real estate business. All these and more are covered as a part of a good real estate investing book.

A number of hidden pitfalls are there that you should avoid for staying in the business. You can get a detailed overview about the dangers, drawbacks and possible ways out. You can also know whether you are ready to step into the business of real estate investing or not. The real estate investing book can give you advice on how to use the books properly so that you get the maximum information out of it.

While on your journey of becoming a successful real estate businessman, you would need a guide who can help you in the right direction. The real estate investing book can be a very good friend in achieving understanding your goals and achieving them. The book would also tell you about the real estate seminars from where you can get hidden benefits.

The real estate investing book also tells you how to set up your own multi billion-dollar empire based on real estate. Some online sites offer you a number of courses, both online as well as normal. You can start your own real estate business with your own home mortgage. If you pay attention to the techniques offered by the real estate investing books you would be able to recover it within seven years.

Many people have the desire to invest in real estate as it can be a very lucrative venture but in order to be successful you should seek the help of a real estate investing guide. Successfully investing in real estate can build your credit rating, create cash flow, and eventually net you a lot of money. But the world of real estate investing is not one that should be entered into lightly as it takes a lot of knowledge to be able to profit from real estate investing. A good real estate investing guide will help you to succeed in your real estate investing ventures. Many people who jump in to the world of real estate investing end up failing, incurring debt, and ruining their credit, all because they did not arm themselves with the proper knowledge before they started. A real estate investing guide is a great way to learn about the business before you dive and will increase your chances of success.

There are many real estate investing guides available on the market today, and you can benefit from the knowledge and advice contained in most of them. A good real estate investing guide will include the risks and benefits of real estate investing and will give you information on how to minimize the risks increase your chances for success. A real estate investing guide that does not realistically portray the amount of time and work involved in real estate investing is probably not the best choice as the world of real estate can be extremely rewarding but not without a lot of work. The real estate investing guide you choose should also give you a good idea of what to expect throughout the process and what type of loss or gain you can expect from various situations.

You should also look for a real estate investing guide that is tailored to your individual investing needs. Simply buying your first home is an investment, and reading a real estate investment guide that is designed for homebuyers looking to purchase a primary residence will help you to select a home that will build you the most equity. It is easy to learn the basics of home buying from a real estate investing guide and you will gain the knowledge you need to build your credit and maximize the equity in your new home if you read one prior to buying.

There are also many other types of real estate investments, and all have unique risks and benefits and should be approached differently. It is important to pick a real estate investing guide that is written with your unique needs in mind so that you can learn about the specific investment type you are interested in. Flipping real estate is much different than investing in a duplex or apartment building, and buying land or an empty lot is different still. After you have decided which investment type you are looking to explore, you should then pick a real estate investing guide that will teach you about your specific type of investment. A good real estate investing guide will help you to understand everything you need to know about purchasing properties, working with tenants, making improvements and renovations, and determining the value of the property as well as estimating its future value.

There are basically two ways you can make money from your real estate investment, capital appreciation and monthly rental. In this article we will assume that you are a serious real estate investor and are purchasing this property to rent out and use mortgaging to control 100% of the property with a 30% cash down payment. Note this article does not deal with the no money down methods of property investment which will be covered in a separate article. This article aims to show you how to identify a good real estate investment that can provide you with a good monthly revenue stream and cashflow.

Firstly, ascertain how much cash you have in hand initially. This amount will determine how much financing you can get and the maximum amount of real estate you can control with your initial sum. Taking our example above, if we have $30,000 in hand, we can use this to control a property worth $100,000.

Secondly, once you do a rough estimation of your initial down payment sum, spend some time going to all the mortgage brokers, finance companies and banks in your area to see if they are willing to loan you money. You would probably need some credit reports and other documentations so as to convince them of your credit worthiness. Some things you would want to learn from your financers include, the interest rate and whether its fixed or floating, the monthly instalment size, whether they have special short term mortgages in case you should identify a good property to flip and re-sell. The financing element of a real estate investment deal is very critical and spending some time shopping around for the best bang for your buck would be a prudent move.

Thirdly, now spend some time peering intently at the classified advertisements. You want to ascertain the properties with the best rental yields as if you want your real estate investment to outperform the national rental yield, you would want therefore to look at properties in areas that are high in demand and look for bargain real estate investment deals. Another good way to figure this out is to ask someone who is knowledgeable in property. Ask him for places with good locations for the purposes of rental. A quick tip to note, places near the sea and on a mountain always fetch better prices than any other properties. Thus even commercial properties with a sea view command a slight premium over properties that do not have a sea view.

Fourthly, now after identifying on paper the bargain properties within your budget, start making appointments with real estate agents to look at properties on your list. If you make it clear that you are looking into property investment and that you might be a frequent customer, then there is a chance that these real estate agents would welcome you and inform you of other real estate bargains that you might be not aware off.

Fifthly, always make it a point to be early for the appointment and spend some time observing the surroundings of the real estate in question. Things to take note off include, a bad neighbourhood, no human traffic if you are looking at a commercial property, inaccessibility, no car porch or parking facilities or something that your intuition tells you is not right with the property. This is even more so for bargain properties and auction properties as there might be something very inherently wrong with the property. Spend sometime talking to the neighbours and ask them about the neighbourhood and then ask them if they know of anything wrong with their neighbours property.

If you are purchasing a run down property, you would want to bring along a contractor and building engineer or architect to inspect the property with you so that you can estimate how much you might have to spend to spruce up the property and later rent out or sell. Once you have ascertained the real estate investment is good for your purchase, start asking about rental yields of property in the area and what price the agent will be able to rent out your property.

Finally, once you have the property price, the mortgage instalment payment, the rental yields, and operating expenses, spend some time generating a spreadsheet to estimate whether your purchase is viable from a monthly cash flow perspective. You want to find the property with the best cash flow for your real estate investment. Once you find one property like that, spend your energy finding other similar properties and you will start seeing your monthly income rise.

Note that generally you are more likely to encounter surprises as opposed to surprise income, so factor this into your calculations. Remember to keep some money in your bank account to take into account things like changing of tenants where a month may go by without any rental coming in and you must be able to pay the monthly bank instalments. Also take note of where in the rental cycle you are purchasing the property, a property that may be in positive cash flow now, may not be so in the next few years.

In the last 20 years or so, hundreds of people have found that investing in real estate can be challenging but profitable. While some may have entered the business with the idea that it is a way to make some easy money, the successful entrepreneurs knew from the start (or know now) that making a profit from real estate investments requires some work. One of the most attractive factors in real estate investing is the possibility of acquiring property with a small investment, sometimes just a fraction of the actual property value. So, to some this may seem like an easy way to build up the bank account. But properties purchased with a small amount of money can require a great deal of time and labor from the investor.

Most experienced real estate investment professionals will tell the beginner to be prepared for learning a lot of new information. Investing in real estate can be a complex process, often taking years to become a comfortable, everyday way of making a living. As these pros know, there is one thing that is easy in real estate investing - losing money. Any business venture should begin with some good, old-fashioned planning. A bit of time spent writing down goals will go a long way toward keeping the venture focused. But writing “Make A Million Dollars” as the first goal may not be wise. It is very important that the goals and the plan are realistic. Remember that the real estate market changes all the time. It will be necessary to adjust the plan and the goals to fit real prices and availability of property.

A few years ago several financial advisers and investment counselors used one-year, five-year and ten-year plans as the basis for sound investing or business growth. These basic concepts can still be quite valuable for someone starting in real estate investment in costa blanca. One of the key factors in these plans will be the detail. It will probably not be enough to simply state that the goal is to make thousands or millions of dollars buying and selling a lot of properties, for example.

One key detail that should be included in any investment or business plan: How much capital (starting money) is available? This will help determine the level at which the venture can begin. Limited funds may lead to a small home that needs a lot of work as the first investment. In addition, it may be necessary to use value in the family home as a means of getting investment capital.

Some real estate investment programs focus on the possibility of putting no money into the venture, except for some required fees and costs. These opportunities are out there, but this system of investment is a bit risky and takes some extra study to reach a successful conclusion. When beginning as a real estate investor, be prepared to take some risk. From the start, it would be wise to consider if you want to hang on to your capital at all costs or risk a bit more for the chance of making a larger profit.

Real Estate Investment Financing is simply industry jargon for a real estate investment loan. In a bad property market where rental yields are low, the most dreaded word that you can say to a real estate investor is negative equity. So what is negative equity? It is a situation which arises when the foreclosed value of your property is less than the price that you paid for it and in certain states like in New York, the mortgagee (the bank) can then bring a deficiency action against the owner to reclaim the difference.

This article will therefore go on to examine three ways to prevent a negative equity situation in the longer term.

The first key to preventing yourself from a negative equity situation is always look at the downside of any investment and analyze the rental yield of your property in a bad year. In real estate investment terms, this means that you look at the average rental yields of your property in the lean years to see if it drops below your monthly instalment for your mortgage repayment. I hate guessing, so the best way is to go to a real estate agent and ask them to generate a graph and then do your own analysis to see if your property rental would go below the amount that you are paying for your monthly mortgage instalment.

The second factor to consider is the price that you pay and the monthly instalments. Many people during a property boom, tend to overpay for their property and as a result, when the economy turns around, the changes of a negative equity situation arising is quite possible. Excessive exuberance in the real estate market like in the stock market can make you more likely to buy the property at an all time high.

The third factor is the rebound of a sector. Spend some time looking at statistical data. Which property sectors rebound more quickly than others in response to a good market and economy? By choosing your property investment right, even if the market is bad, your chances of a turnaround are better than the national average. This is also an application of the common adage of “making the best of a bad situation” in real estate investing.

In conclusion, by spending some time to consider the three above contributing factors and spending some time to analyze a property investment can save you much heartache later and prevent you from falling into a negative equity Real Estate Investment Financing situation.

Capital Investment in Infrastructure is always an interesting component of Real Estate investing. In my experience it can be one of the most positive influencing factors in property appreciation, however, it can never be taken for granted. During the examination period of a potential investment an investor discovers that sewer and water is going in or that a new road is being constructed, and without a great deal of consideration the investor jumps and secures as much of the surrounding property as possible regardless of the timing.

It is this investment timing that I am most interested in here today. To help determine the best timing of an investment I find it helpful to differentiate the type of infrastructure change. First, separate the target properties into Direct and Indirect Impact Investments. A direct impact investment is one that is immediately impacted by the announcement of an infrastructure project. An Indirect Impact Investment is one that is not immediately affected by the announcement or the early stages of the infrastructure but its value will be significantly improved by the completion of the project.

Take the example of two properties located outside of Raleigh, North Carolina, the home of North Carolinas Research Triangle Park. The first property (direct impact property) is located contiguous I-85 at an intersection with a secondary road. The second property is approximately one-half mile away from the intersection and has frontage on the secondary road leading to the I-85 intersection.

This area is considered a bedroom community for the greater Raleigh area and is in itself growing at a rate faster than Raleigh and Durham. The I-85 corridor had been developing well prior to the announcement by the North Carolina DOT regarding the re-construction of the highway from Raleigh north to the Virginia State Line, (40 miles of construction). This project would eventually take eight years, cause major delays, re-route traffic and have a major impact on the economy and expansion of the entire corridor.

The first response of most investors was to move out of the area and invest in other locations. However, for those who analyzed the potential and adjusted the price, timing and selection of properties in this area turned out to be a very profitable investment. Let me explain.

Direct Impact Sample Analysis

The first property is adjacent Interstate 85, in a very active market and priced around $100,000 per acre prior to the highway re-construction announcement. Property value was tied directly to business activity generated by its access to Interstate 85. Property value was evaluated as a Direct Impact Investment over the 8 year life of the infrastructure project. The duration was determined based on project length from announcement through completion

Upon announcement of the project the value of the property dropped from $100,000 per acre to about $70,000 per acre and remained at that level for the first three years of the investment.. In the fourth year of the project life the property began to gain in value at about the same rate as other properties not aligned with the highway, still there was no positive influence caused by the highway project. The primary growth in value came toward the end of the highway project, eighteen to twenty-four months from its completion.

Indirect Impact Sample Analysis

The second property is well off the Interstate and has little or no value related to the interstate driven commerce. Its initial value was $12,000 per acre and continued to grow at a rate consistent with value driven by non-interstate factors. However during the last two years of the highway project the value grew substantially and was in fact pulled by the Interstates commerce generating capability. The transition from no impact to high impact was created by the general maturing of the area and the much increased commerce generating capacity of the improved infrastructure.

It is key to notice that the quality of the investment is higher for the land investor if the investment is made in the Indirect Impact Parcel and the timing of the investment can make a massive difference in the rate of return. In comparing indirect impact to direct impact properties, the compounded rate of value growth with respect to the year invested through to the end of the project showed substantially higher returns for the indirect impact property.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of these results is that for the indirect impact property, years four and five were outstanding; however, yer six fell to the lowest level of the project life. This is primarily due to finite limits of Interstate 85 to continue to drive value. Most of the growth in value was related to the investment in the highway capital improvement. The investment in Interstate 85 over the long haul created a gain in revenue generating capability which forced the property value upward. It is to be noted that growth in the interstate traffic after the completion of the project is slow and its ability to create additional value would accordingly be slow.

Until a commerce center is established at this intersection neither property will see really strong growth . With capital investment in a commerce center there will be value growth similar to the level growth we saw with the highway; however, it will occur in a shorter cycle time. Hence, I would argue that the risk component would be higher and the timing would be even more crucial.

Regardless if we know intimately the area we would like to invest in or if it is across the world we need to understand that in rental markets just like housing markets it is based on supply and demand. If there are a small number of renters and a large number of properties available then we have an imbalance in the market, which always benefits one side over the other.

So then we need to ask what are the factors that we can look for to discover what the supply and demand are for any given area? There really are four main factors to look at when trying to figure out if we should invest or not.

Location

We always hear about location, location, location and to some extent I would agree. When we are talking about real estate we need to look at it from a little different perspective. Do people want to live there? Is it on a busy street? If it is on a busy street then our rental signs will be highly visible and potentially can save us money on advertising the property. Is there a unique quality to the property? Is it on a golf course, great mountain views or on the water?Employment trends

Next we need to find out what the local employment trends are doing. Let’s face it people live where they can find a job and if we can find out if there is job grow or is the job market in decline then we can understand what the market is going to do. Is a big employer leaving or coming into the area?

Now we can say the people might consider commuting great distances to go to and from work, but that will only take us so far. We might be able to draw a 30-45 minute window around the major employers to discover the safe distances, but if we don’t want to gamble with our money then we need to be realistic and find our properties close to where the employers are.

Population growth

Again we need to take a look at the trends. Is there population growth or is the population in decline? This is also has direct correlation to employment so we can use both of these numbers together to discover if our market is right to invest in or not.

Often times the population has a tremendous effect on job growth even though it might be temporary. As in times of great population growth there are new jobs created around the building industry itself to compensate for the population growth. Construction jobs, architects, engineers, real estate professionals etc are all directly affected in a population boom or bust.

Inventory

Even in boom times when every thing is going well there still might be a problem of over build. In other words there are too many houses for too few people to live in them. We need to be very aware of the overall industry and have team members that can help us know what the market is doing.

Property managers and real estate brokers will be invaluable in telling you what the vacancy rates are (high vacancy rates are a clear sign of over build), what the market rents are and what are the different promotions going on to get people into properties. When there are a lot of promotions then you know that supply out paces demand.

The funniest part about all of this is that the market regardless if you are looking in your back yard or across the country is constantly changing and you have to keep up what is happening now and then far into the future. The more that you know the better prepared to make a solid educated decision regarding when or where you should invest.

The three categories of real estate investing deal analysis are equity, cash flow, return on investment.

First let’s discuss equity.

When you are analyzing a real estate deal based on equity, you’re basically looking at how much of the discount you’re buying the house at.

The second major category is based on cash flow.

When we look at real estate deals based on cash flow, we’re analyzing how much money each month the house will produce.

And the last major category is return on investment.

When we look at return on investment, we are calculating a ratio of how much money we are making from the property and how much we have invested in the property.

When I do our deal analysis for our Analyzed Deals website, I actually use all three methods of deal analysis. I will calculate out how much equity is in the property. I will also calculate how much cash flow the property will produce based on 10% down payment and 20% down payment. I even calculate how much cash flow if you were to offer the property on a rent to own. I even run the numbers for return on investment based on the amount you put down.

How you decide to analyze your deals is determined largely in part by what you intend to do with the property when you purchase it.

You need to focus on deals where you can get in and out of, with a quick profit where you have no further obligations or liability in the deal. Then you can use the profit you make and spend it on whatever you choose. You wont have to worry about getting caught up in a mess that you cannot financially afford to be in. So what type of deals can you do that will allow you to do this? Well, the answer is pretty much any type of deal if you know how. So let’s look at some of the ways you can accomplish this using different types of deals.

The most common deal that everyone hears about getting started with is flipping properties. The first thing that comes to mind when hearing the term, “flipping properties”, is doing wholesale flips, where you find a run down property, get it under contract, and flip it to another investor, leaving the other investor with the lion share of the profit and making a quick profit for yourself. The truth of the matter is there is more ways to do flips than just looking for run down properties. You can flip just about any type of deal, whether it be a wholesale flip, a retail flip, whether it be making a cash offer, doing a L/O, or even a “subject to” deal.
This is where having the knowledge comes into play. The more knowledge you have, the more ways you will know how to structure the different types of deals and be able to make a fast profit without having to take on the risk by staying in the deal.

If you have done your research then you should already know by now that the deals to be had are from sellers that are motivated. You also know that the best way to find these motivated sellers is by making it easy for them to find you. You know that the way you make it easy for them to find you is by marketing yourself and letting the world know that you buy property.

Once you are set up with marketing yourself, this means you are going to run into many different types of sellers, with different types of properties, with different types of problems that you are going to need to know how to structure the deal in order to make it work. Not every deal is going to work by just trying to do a L/O on it. Not every deal is going to work by being able to just get the deed by doing a “subject to” deal. Not every deal is going to be a Junker, where you can do a wholesale flip. In order to take advantage of anything that comes your way, you’re going to have to know about as many ways as possible to do a deal in order to prevent from missing out on the opportunity of making a nice profit, just because you only knew about one way of doing things.

Based on my experience and knowing what I know now, if I were just starting out and I was cash poor, or had little cash to start with and I needed to make some money to pay other obligations first, these are some of the ways I would focus on putting fast cash in my pocket, without having to take on the risk of staying in the middle of a deal.

One way, would be the wholesale flip. If a ran into a property that was in need of a lot of repair I would get it under contract and flip it to another investor that was into doing rehabs. Depending on the amount of profit I was able to pencil in for myself would depend on how I would handle doing the flip with my Buyer. If I were just making a smaller profit, between $2k - $5k, I would just assign my contract over to my Buyer and be done with the deal. If I were to stand to make a larger profit on the deal, where I didn’t want my Buyer to know what I was making to prevent from losing that Buyer, I would set up a simultaneous closing and close the deal at a title company or at an attorney’s office if attorney’s were the ones that handled closings in my state, rather than title companies.

Whichever way I handle closing the deal, once it’s closed, I’m out of the deal with a quick profit in my pocket and I don’t have any further obligations or liability in the deal. I can use the profit for anything I choose without having to be concerned about something going wrong with the deal later since I’m not involved with it after that.

I might have a seller that calls with a nice property they need to get rid of. It could be a deal that might be had by getting it way below market value if it had a lot of equity in it. This may require a cash offer in order to get it tied up under contract. Once I have it under contract, I can then market it at a good price below market value in order to get a fast sale, and either assign my contract over to my Buyer, or set up a simultaneous closing between the Seller, myself and my Buyer. This is pretty much the same as flipping a wholesale property in need of a lot of repairs, only in this case, I’ll be marketing it for a retail Buyer instead of a wholesale Buyer. Just like the wholesale flip, once I close the deal with my Buyer I’m out of the deal with a fast profit in my pocket. Now I can use that profit towards anything I want without having to worry about any unforeseen circumstances that could arise since I’m no longer tied to the deal.

I might have a Seller that calls with a nice property to get rid of, but they have little to no equity. Well, we know trying to make some kind of a cash offer isn’t going to work because the Seller owes too much on it. So in order to make a deal out of this I’m going to have to be able to buy this one on some type of terms. If I can buy it with favorable terms then I can structure the deal in such a way that would allow me to use forced appreciation. I can do this by reselling the property and offering some type of terms to my Buyer. The problem is, I don’t want to have to remain in the middle of this deal because any cash I need I have to use for something else. Since I’m cash poor, and I don’t have an adequate reserve fund set aside, and I won’t be able to put any cash I get up front from this deal into a reserve fund, I’m going to have to do this deal in such a way that will allow me to get in and out of it, with no further liability on my part.

So what if I were to get this under a L/O arrangement? Usually under a L/O deal I would get a Tenant/Buyer to put into the property where I would make some up front cash from the option consideration my Tenant/Buyer pays me, plus some monthly cash flow while they lease the property from me, and some additional profit on the back end when they go to exercise their option, since their option price would be higher than my option price I have with the Seller. Since I’m going to be using any cash I get up front on this deal for other obligations I can’t afford to take any risk by staying in the middle of this deal.

What happens if my Tenant/Buyer turns out to be a deadbeat and stops paying? Or what if they lost their job and couldn’t pay? What if they refused to peacefully vacate the property and I had to hire an attorney to have them evicted? What if I got the property back and I had to go in and make $2k - $5k in repairs just to get the thing ready for another Tenant/Buyer?

Remember that I’m cash poor and I had to use any option money I got up front from the Tenant/Buyer to pay other obligations. I only made a couple hundred bucks per month while they lived in the property that they did pay on. I probably used that extra cash for other things also. So where do I get the money from to take care of this problem? I’m cash poor and I have no credit where I can borrow from anywhere.

So now what?

Let me tell you what.

YOU’RE SCREWED!!!

OK, so how can I avoid that from ever becoming a problem? Easy! Don’t stay in the middle of the deal! Rather than getting all wrapped up in becoming greedy with wanting to risk everything just to get that extra monthly cash flow, and any back end profit, IF the Tenant/Buyer was to exercise their option, just get as much as you can up front and ASSIGN your contract over to your Tenant/Buyer. Just use that money they would normally pay you as the option consideration and take it as your assignment fee to let them just step into your position. Your Tenant/Buyer actually ends up with a much better contract because they will have more than one year to exercise their option that you would have given them under a new L/O contract with you. They will get your contract, which will be a lower monthly payment than what a new contract with you would have been. They end up with a much better deal by being able to take over your original contract you have with the Seller. ALWAYS make sure you get a signed release of liability from the Seller when you assign your contract over to someone else. That way if your Buyer should ever screw up; the Seller can’t come back to you and hold you liable for the contract.
All you need to do is continue to do deals like this until you have made enough money to take care of your other financial obligations that you needed the cash for. Once you have taken care of that you are ready to move on to the next step. The next step will be building your cash reserves. I would want a minimum of $25k in cash reserves built up before feeling safe enough to protect myself before using any of the profits from the deals I do, that I will remain involved with.

If you are already in a position to where you don’t need to make some fast cash to use towards other obligations, then you can start with this next step, which is building up your cash.

Now that you are ready to start building up your cash you can either continue to do deals, where you flip them to an end Buyer or assign your contracts over to them. You can then take the cash you make and put that away in your reserve fund until you get enough saved up before venturing into other things. Or you can jump-start your investing by doing more deals where you can take advantage of building up monthly cash flow and equity that will provide you with some nice paydays on the back end when you’re Buyers eventually cash you out. Your main goal here should be focused on getting your reserve fund built up before you touch any of the up front profits you make from your Buyers down payment money or option consideration money. Put all of that into your reserve fund until you have at least $25k in reserves. If you average $5k per deal in up front cash then you will only need to do 5 deals to get your reserves up to $25k.

Once you have built up your reserves you will have the cash on hand to deal with any unforeseen problems that may arise. Basically, you will be using your Buyer’s cash to cover any expenses you incur should one of them default on their agreement. Then when you get another Buyer to put into the property again you can replace the reserves you used with the cash you get up front from them. Meanwhile you can use any of the monthly cash flows coming in for other things, like replacing your income to live off of.

Once you’ve reach your minimum goal of getting $25k in reserves you can then start using some of the up front cash you get on future deals towards other things. Even though you have some reserves built up you should continue to take some of the up front cash you get on future deals and put that away towards building cash that will allow you to do other deals you normally couldn’t do without having cash on hand to invest. As your portfolio of properties continues to grow you should add a little more towards your reserve fund to allow you enough cash to carry you over, should you ever run into a problem where you end up with a handful of vacant properties at once. If the economy or something were to take a dive you will have enough cash to carry you over until things turn around again, hopefully!

As you continue to do deals and get more experience your knowledge base will grow with it. Then you can start looking into other things if that is something you choose to do and diversify your investments.

So if I were starting out today I would start with flipping property, L/O’s and doing “subject to” deals. With having a good understanding in each of these types of avenues of real estate investing, I could have more than enough to keep me busy with doing a lot of deals. The key is to educate yourself in everything you can that pertains to these types of deals and you should be way ahead of the game if you implement a good solid plan and take action!

If you could afford to, I would buy at least 3 courses. One on flipping properties, one on doing L/O’s and one on doing “subject to” deals. If you can’t afford to get all 3 right away then pick one on L/O’s or flipping properties and start with one of those. Then take action and get out there and just do it! Get that first deal under your belt by flipping or assigning it over to another Buyer and cash out with a quick profit. Take $300 - $400 of that profit and buy the next course. Then go out and do another deal and take enough out to buy yourself the 3rd course. Then crank out the marketing and get those Motivated Sellers finding you! Then close some deals and begin building your way to financial freedom!
The important thing is to implement a good plan and stick to it until you reach your minimum goals in order to give yourself a solid foundation to where you don’t get yourself into trouble and end up living in a financial nightmare!

I can get into a lot more detail on this but it would require writing an entire course on the subject and this is already getting way to long. These are just some basic ideas to help you with finding some direction on where to start after you have done your research and educated yourself with the basics.