Posted by Alex Gurevich, TX on June 11, 2001 at 16:48:28:
Everyone of us was a “complete beginner” knowing nothing at some point in our lives.
The sooner you start learning the better. You have a chance of getting to know something sooner. I am proud to say, my 12 and 13 year-old kids know quite a bit about real estate. They’ve been to dirty, smelly, ugly houses, they’ve been to numerous real estate closings, attorney offices, saw me meeting with a lot of contractors, etc.
They are also pretty excited about running to our mailbox to make sure there’s lots of checks from tenants there.
It doesn’t mean they’ll be involved in real estate when they are older, but if they wanted to, I am making sure they won’t be strangers to the industry.
Austin is not the easiest market to get started at the moment, although probably not the worst one either. There’s quite a bit of competition. There’s quite a bit of deals too, although it takes some digging to find them.
There’s always room for a new aggressive individuals who find their own place in the local environment. Aks Tim Randle, for example. After a year or so of part-time learning and doing a few deals, he quit and committed to a full time real estate career, leaving potentially lucrative professional well paying field behind.
You’ll expedite your learning by going to seminars, boot camps, buying books and home-study courses. Some of them are quite expensive - you’ll probably learn more from them too. Some are less expensive, but you’ll still pick up a lot of fundamentals from them.
Good luck.