rented as a holiday home. Its more than 3k a month in peak season. I have one family thats booked both jan+feb 2013 for 8k and thats standard.

Thanks for the feedback. I dont want to keep the property I want to sell it I just wasnt sure about the price. Sounds like I should be happy with 195k

How on earth do people make 8-10%/year before maintenance and tax? Here in central Europe that's pretty much impossible to achieve, you'd be lucky to get to 4%.

stevepra, good stuff, thanks

Good read. Thanks for all the infos. Now time to sleep lol.

How much time do you put in... Seems like a part time job as opposed to yearly rental which is fairly passive

Interested in doing this myself but pawning off the work too my better half

Thank you to OP for taking time (the most precious commodity of all) out of your life to educate us lesser mortals about real estate investing. This thread is phenomenal; I cant stop reading it.

Im going to start building my real estate empire (best time in history to make a fortune in real estate) but right now im suffering from information overload. I own a home and want to start buying investment real estate.

Where would you begin were you me?

Thanks bro.

need much more information before anyone can give you usable advice

where do you live?

have a steady income? how much?

how much cash do you have to invest?

have good credit?

have handyman skills?

have relationships with people that know about RE investing or fields that are similar (ie. mortgage specialists, lawyers, accountants)?

I'm sure there are more that would be useful.

Thanks for the info!

I would rather not share any of this information online because the city I live in is FULL of ****ing losers with no life that follow me online and then gossip about it.

Anyways, this being said, income and cash aint a prob but I dont wanna use my money. Why the hell would I do that when I can leverage other peoples money? Anyhoo, I dont need a very specific plan. I just wanted to get pointed in the right direction. Like what would be a good first step to take? I have no idea where to begin. Should I meet ith some other investors and pick there brains? Are there any really exceptional books that lay out a good road map? etc, etc?

Read the first 2000 posts in this thread. Write down your questions, then read the next 1000 posts to have them answered.

Yea really...this thread is a friggin goldmine. Wheres the OP...he leave?

well your best bet would be to find a successful mentor to help you along the way.....if thats not possible read a ton of books and figure out what part of real estate investing would be optimal for you.....personally Ive been working the foreclosure market, mainly the tax foreclosure market......when a house is foreclosed on by the city for backed taxes, they auction it off for the amount of tax due......alot of times the house ends up going for less then its worth which is obviously very profitable.....think you need to corner a part of the market and become an expert at it.

Thanks Joe.

Im going to get into foreclosures and REO's utilizing a buy and hold strategy as the foundation and initial plan. Im in FL and the market is at rock bottom and the renters market is pretty damn good.

What a great thread. I probably should've browsed this thread a little more, but I have zero knowledge about real estate and I'm experiencing information overload trying to find answers to my questions.

I was able to get a small loan from a friend at 4% interest, so for the last two weeks I've had a real estate agent that a friend recommended send me MLS listings. Unfortunately I've only looked at one property. It's a 2/1 quad, REO, and the asking price is $57K. The ARV is $80K and it needs $6K in repairs. I'd be doing all the rehab work myself. So compared to burning my money every month renting, this seems like a pretty good starter home for a first time buyer. If I get it my plan is to rehab it and live there and then rent it out and repeat the process or maybe try to sell it if I can get a high enough offer.

I have some questions before making an offer that I hope you guys can help me with:

1. How much less should I offer because I'm paying cash as opposed to financing? I know a cash offer is more appealing to the bank, but I'm not sure how much more valuable it is to them.

2. Do I need a real estate attorney or can I use a title company? Maybe this is something my real estate agent will have recommended for me, or I should shop around for the best price?

3. When do I look for homeowner's insurance? My auto insurer is a small company that gets me a great rate, so maybe I should start with them to see if I can get a discount? And if I can choose a larger deductible to get a lower rate, should I do so?

4. Sometimes I'll see a foreclosure on zillow and it will say it's been on zillow for 30 days or whatever and to go to a paid site for details like foreclosure.com. How can I get the details for free? And when I find out what bank owns the property should I have my realtor contact them or try to buy it from them directly?

Thanks in advance for any advice.