Your Simple 9-Step Guide to Start Investing in Real Estate Today
TL;DR - If you follow these 9 steps, you can get started investing in real estate today.
The grand vision - to own multiple 500-unit multi-family apartments and make millions of dollars in passive income every year.
The reality - you haven't even bought your first property yet.
Does that sound about right? We thought so.
It's okay! Not all of us are mega-millionaires that can throw around capital willy-nilly. But that doesn't mean you can't start investing in real estate today.
In fact, it's super simple to get started.
To help you out, our team at Undoor has crafted this easy-to-follow 9-step guide. It'll take you from a complete beginner to knowing how to get started in no time.
If that sounds good to you, then let's get into it!
9 Simple Steps to getting started investing in real estate
If You Need A Hand... Look No Further
It's no secret that beginning something new is difficult. That's just a fact of life.
Sometimes, that can make things challenging and rewarding. Other times, it dissuades us entirely.
We want you to know that investing in real estate doesn't have to be hard.
At Undoor, we have a team of experienced, passionate, and friendly real estate investors that are waiting to help you out.
We can shed all types of light on what market fits you best, the property type that you should specialize in, and much much more.
If you're interested in being coached through buying your first piece of real estate, contact us here. We'd love to be of service to you!
With that being said, let's get into the guide.
Step 0: Committed vs. Interested
What are your goals with investing in real estate?
Do you want to make a lot of money, passively? Fund your retirement with rental properties? Maybe you want to make real estate your career.
All of these goals can be accomplished - but only if you're truly committed.
Being committed means daily discipline. It means putting in the time and effort to learn. There will be highs and lows, but you have to stay the course.
If you're simply curious and looking to make a quick buck or two, that means you're interested. Interested people give up the minute things become difficult. And that doesn't translate to making money with real estate.
Real Estate Investing is not a "get rich quick" scheme; it's a "get rich for sure" scheme. Patience is key in this game.
So before investing in real estate, ask yourself - am I committed or interested?
Step 1: Get Your Finances In Order
Where you're at in your financial journey will play a large part in what you can invest.
If you're in a position where you have money saved for a down payment on a property, that's awesome! But if you are hardly saving anything each month, then you'll need to focus on that.
Because that's exactly how you level up your finances - by increasing how much money you save.
This goes hand-in-hand with things like building your credit, eliminating debt, and investing.
Prioritize spending as little money as you can and save up the maximum amount you can afford, week after week. This will set you up to make good decisions with real estate.
Step 2: Pick An Investing Strategy
There are a good deal of strategies you could follow to get started with real estate investing. But at Undoor, we're a huge proponent of one strategy in particular.
If you're interested in understanding this strategy in depth, you can check it out here.
Basically, it involves choosing one property type - we like single-family homes - and sticking with it.
Step 3: Choose Your Market
The big choice you'll make in this step is whether you want to invest in a linear or cyclical market.
Linear markets - which Undoor recommends - have a steady and consistent growth trend. These markets are usually in the midwest.
Cyclical markets, on the other hand, are inconsistent and hard to predict. The price of real estate often bounces up and down. They're normally found on the East and West Coast.
Step 4: What Is Your Property Criteria?
Before investing your money in a real estate property, you should decide what criteria you want to be met.
If you follow Undoor's investment strategy, you'll want to pick a property type first. Do you want to invest in single-family homes, multi-family homes, storage units?
After that, you can decide what your budget is. This largely depends on how well you set yourself up in step 1.
Do you want to buy in the $100,000-$199,999 range? Or maybe you want to invest more? It's all up to your finances.
The main two criteria to focus on are the property type and budget you want to set.
Step 5: Assemble Your Team
This is a huge part of your success in the real estate game.
You want a group of people that will make you better, have connections/resources and look out for you.
To break it down, there are three main categories of people you'll want for this journey. Mentors and partners, the ones that handle your finances and property management, and contractors who handle the various services you'll need.
If you don't have any of these lined up, don't worry. Undoor has you covered. Just head here and start a chat with us. We'd be more than happy to be mentors for you.
Step 6: Get Financing
Getting a good mortgage rate is the difference between making money each month and losing it. After all, one of the best ways to earn passive income is through rental income.
There are plenty of different lenders and loan types to choose from. The good news is that you can shop around and compare rates!
Make sure to really take your time with securing financing. You want a good mortgage with low interest.
Step 7: Get Ready For A Down Payment
How well you fare in this step - once again - depends on how well you've been saving your money.
When buying a real estate property, you should aim to have 10-20% of the price in your bank account for a down payment. The more you put down, the better you'll fare with your mortgage payment.
Step 8: Find Some Deals
The fun part!
You've saved up money for a down payment, done all of the hard work. Now it's time to shop around.
The best resource, when you are starting, for finding real estate deals is the MLS. It's especially helpful if you're shopping around in a market that's far away from you (which is totally doable).
Step 9: Focus
By this point, you're ready to invest in real estate. The rest is up to you!
If you're truly committed to this, like we talked about earlier, then you'll need to think about a few things.
How much time do you want to spend on your real estate business each week? How do you want to move forward? What are your priorities?
Asking yourself these questions will set you up for success in real estate.
There You Have It
We hope you've learned how to start your real estate investing journey with this guide.
Our main goal was to provide you with actionable steps so that, if you're truly committed, you can get started today.
As always, happy investing!
How We Can Help You
Does investing in real estate sound intriguing to you? Would you like to learn more? We'd love to be of value!
At Undoor, we pride ourselves on teaching new and experienced investors how to maximize their gains with minimal stress. Our goal is to help you fall in love with real estate and real estate investing. What we're most passionate about is maximizing investment gains for people like you.
Do you want to get key insights and advice that'll help you get ahead of the game? Don't hesitate to contact us for any and all real estate wants or needs.
