EP2: 10 Steps to Get Started in Real Estate Investing with Amelia & Grace
Hello everyone! Welcome back to another episode of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast. Today we're going to talk about the 10 Steps to Get Started In Real Estate Investing.
Step 1:
This first step is super important and it's also a step that a lot of investors forget to take when they're first starting out. It is to define your why. This is important because your why sets the standard for your journey and what it’s going to look like.
Consider what it is that you actually want. Do you want to do this passively? Are you trying to do this full-time to get out of your W-2? Do you want cash flow? Do you want appreciation? Do you want to be passive, or fill every waking minute you have with real estate so that you can leave your job ASAP? There are so many different ways to invest in real estate and without knowing what you're doing it for, it's impossible to decide on the best strategy.
I don't think I ever sat down and necessarily like wrote out what my WHY is, but I would highly encourage you to sit down and define your WHY. One great resource to get started with is our free download: 10 Steps to Get Started In Real Estate.
Step 2:
The next step would be to determine your competitive advantage. A lot of people want an answer on where they should invest and really it comes down to where you have a competitive advantage. Where is your network? Where do you know the market really well? Wherever that is, go to that market. Really think about where can you make the biggest bang for your buck and where you have a competitive advantage.
Step 3:
We are so passionate about number three: analyzing your personal financial situation. This is such a basic necessity when you are deciding how to get started in real estate investing. It's very important to have a solid personal financial base because real estate investing is running a business. So if you can't manage your own finances, you are not going to be able to manage a business's finances, especially on the scale of hundreds of thousands of dollars. You don’t have to be great at math, but you do have to know how to run the numbers, punch those numbers into a spreadsheet, and know what those numbers are telling you.
Step 4:
Choose a strategy. There are a million different strategies in real estate investing and within those strategies, there are a million more. More often than not, you will come across one of these strategies:
Buy-and-hold
Flipping
Wholesaling
Short-term rentals
Mid-term rentals (get the deets inside our course, here!)
BRRRR
Step 5:
Your crystal clear deal criteria - this can also be called your ‘Buy Box’. This is where you set standards and a vision for your perfect deal and start looking for properties that fall within that ‘Buy Box’. This is a really important step because a lot of investors get analysis paralysis. But if you have specific criteria in mind and find a property that falls within the criteria, this is a way to hold yourself accountable when you find a property that falls within your search criteria.
Step 6:
Ask yourself: are you going to invest locally or out of state? There are pros and cons to renting in your own state as well as out of state. We like to say that local investing is easier to get started, but harder to systemize, because you get caught up in doing the day-to-day things. Whereas out-of-state investing can be really hard to get up and running and get under control, however, once you do it can run like a well-oiled machine because you are not doing anything but managing the people you have in place.
Step 7:
Hire out! This is a huge decision for your real estate business. But the good news is that just because you choose to do DIY to begin with, that doesn't mean that you're stuck with DIY forever! Additionally, if you're not already a handy person, I wouldn't necessarily try to learn DIY on a rehab. It can be tough and time-consuming. Start small with cosmetic fixes (painting, adding some new hardware, etc.), instead of a full-gut project.
Step 8:
Check out one (or all) of our FAVORITE reads all about investing!
Any of these reads by David Greene
The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
Step 9:
Check out our favorite kind of free resource: podcasts! We were self-taught investors and so much of our knowledge was gained for free or through very minimal investment (books, see above).
Step 10:
Join our community for women in real estate called, The Community. It consists of a monthly masterclass from an industry expert, a monthly LIVE Q&A with us, and a Community Dashboard where you can network and ask all of your burning questions. It is a very low-cost way to gain so much knowledge and get to meet other female investors.
We hope you got all you need to get started. Catch you next time!
Resources:
Grab our free download: 10 Steps to Get Started In Real Estate
Double your income with our Mid-Term Rentals Profit Academy
Join The Community
Any of these reads by David Greene
The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner