It’s been a while since I started my career in real estate investing, but I remember the day I bought my first property. It was as thrilling as it was stressful. I was never more grateful than I was to have top-notch training under my belt and a mentor I could call should things get more complicated than I could handle alone. Well, truth be told, I was also pretty grateful the day my brother, Ben, asked me how to get into real estate investing too. He’d been miserable at his day job for years and it was making the rest of the family miserable too. So, when he called me up after putting in his two weeks’ notice, I said I’d do him one better than just give him advice. I told my baby brother I’d give him a head start.

Advice on How to Get Into Real Estate Investing

Many of us come to real estate investing after quitting a corporate job. I certainly did. I worked long hours at something I didn’t much care for and was frequently bored with. As a real estate investor, however, you can grow your business part-time or full-time, have a positive impact on your community, and look forward to each day knowing it’s going to be different from the last. There’s nothing quite like being your own boss, especially in a field where you get to see the fruits of your labor every day.

Getting started in real estate investing, however, can be harder than you think if you take the wrong advice or don’t seek any at all. When starting a real estate investment company, it’s always good to talk to someone who’s been successfully doing it for years and, ideally, during different market conditions. So it was smart of my brother to come to me, and not just because we’re blood. I’ve been buying and rehabbing property for so long that I’ve got more to say on the subject than most. But I’ll try to keep it brief. Here are the basics to get you started:

• Get training. As obvious as it may sound, the first–and possibly best–thing you can do to get started on the right foot is to get into a top-notch real estate investor training program. There are plenty of programs out there to choose from, but you’ll want to make sure you pick one that prepares you to find, buy, renovate, and sell property smartly. More than just learning how to work the numbers on any one deal to make a profit, you’ve got to learn how to work your brand into the minds of home sellers. After all, they’re your bread and butter.

• Get a mentor. Even with good training, inevitably, you will need help at some point getting through a good deal gone wrong or overcoming a bump in the business-building road. That’s when having a real estate investing mentor to guide you can make a difference in your career. Every property and every deal is unique, so, getting one-on-one support from a seasoned real estate investing pro who knows the ropes, and who cares about your individual success, will help you make the tough calls and avoid some potentially tougher lessons.

• Get a network. As a new real estate investor, assembling a network of other real estate investing professionals can seem like the hardest part of starting out. But, that’s exactly what you’ll need to do to keep your business running as a well-oiled machine. Whether you need recommendations for an electrician or feedback on the latest investment property marketing techniques, it’s your network that’ll have answers you can trust. Don’t underestimate the importance of surrounding yourself with a successful network to build your profit potential.

• Get tools. Not only will you need to have access to the best people to build your investing confidence, expertise, and career, you’ll need to have access to the best tools. For example, when you’re ready to start buying investment properties, a marketing campaign that brings motivated sellers to you can increase your chances of getting great deals. And, when you’re running the numbers on a renovation to determine the potential returns, a valuation tool, like HomeVestors®’ ValueChek™, can save you from purchasing a money pit or strengthen your resolve to buy. No novice real estate investor ever turned pro without the help of expert tools.

• Get a plan. Stating your business goals, and the means by which you will achieve them, is a decisive move toward jumpstarting your investing career. But creating a real estate investment plan with deadlines and milestones can also help keep that career on track. Life, and work, often get busy. So, having something in place that you can reference and refine as time goes by is a good way to stay focused on the big picture of building your business.

These are all great points for how to get into real estate investing, and I make them every time someone asks me for help. But I have one final piece of advice that I took several years ago and, if you’re serious about buying and renovating property as a career, I think you should too.

Get Serious About Your Real Estate Investing Career

I’ve always believed that the fastest path to success lies in following the road that someone you admire has already taken. So, when I decided that I wanted to be investing in real estate over the long haul, my first plan of action was to become an independently owned and operated HomeVestors® franchisee. The most successful investor I knew was a HomeVestors® franchisee and I wanted the confidence and expertise he had. And after receiving comprehensive real estate investor training and ongoing support from my Development Agent, that’s exactly what I got. It’s been a thrilling investing adventure ever since.

And, yes, my baby brother decided to follow in my footsteps and is now confidently investing in real estate too. If you’re serious about real estate investing and want a head start on making it a career, contact HomeVestors® about franchise opportunities today.

Each franchise office is independently owned and operated.