Real Estate Investing (REI) 101 – Part 1: Planning

I always get a million questions about buying and making money from real estate investments. There were a number of thoughtful, curious questions from commentors earlier in the week who honestly wanted to understand what, how and why I’m doing what I’m doing and why I’m such a big fan of real estate over other investment vehicles.

I’m going to write a series of posts about what I consider to be the basics of real estate investing. Lots of this material is going to be drawn from my own experiences investing, working in property management and from the training that the Real Estate Investment Network offers.

I want to make sure I’m not missing any topics (and make sure you don’t think I’m dodging hard questions about the risks involved in real estate), so here’s my thoughts on 11 topics I want to cover. Let me know if I’ve missed something you’d like to read more about.

REI 101 Topics:

1. Leverage
2. National and Macro Economic Indicators
3. Property and Local Market Evaluation (the Property Goldmine Scorecard)
4. Real Estate Cycles
5. Cash Flow Analysis
6. Negotiating and Buying Properties
7. Financing your Investment Properties
8. Filling Vacancies
9. Hiring and Managing a Property Manager
10. Raising Investment Capital and Joint Ventures
11. Taxes and Exit Strategies