How to get started in real estate investing?

The number one question that thousands if new investors gave asked me is: How do I get started?

The first thing that any new investor has to do is to pick a target area. This should a town it neighborhood that you know and are the mist active in. It should be the same neighborhood where you get your dry cleaning done, where you go to the supermarket, where you go out to lunch, where you walk your dog, where you do just about everything. Someone might be thinking that they've identified an area that they want to invest in, but it's too far to go to do all these things. If it's too far to go to, then it's too far to invest in.

There are two reasons that you need to be in your target area all the time. The first is that you need to know your target area intimately. You need to know every house on every block. Why? We all know that there are some blocks it properties that are better then others for no obvious reason. We all know of certain locations that every business that goes there seems to fail. Nobody knows the reason. Maybe its cursed, but if you it your best friend was opening up a business, There’s no way you would put it there. We all know of certain corners where kids tend to hang out late at night. The house on that corner isn't as desirable as one a block away.

The flip side is also true. I know a guy was investing in off campus housing in a particular city. He told me that he was paying a certain price for a property several blocks off campus. The price he told ne sounded high compared to other properties that I knew of on different blocks. I knew the area pretty well, but not intimately. I told him exactly what I thought that this was a bad deal. He knew the neighborhood much better than I and he told ne that he was getting a great deal off if an out if town investor who didn't know what he had and that it was the safest block in the city. I was a little confused and asked him why it was safer then any other Street a few blocks away from Campus. He smiled and told me that no other block as 24 hour undercover police protection. Now I was really confused. Seeing that I still didn’t get it, he smiled even boarder and told me that the Mayor of the city lives next door.

There's no way an outsider would know any of these things. If you invest in an area that you dint know intimately, you run big risks.