Become a real estate investor, step by step

Learn it, practice it, then find and analyze real deals in Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and Texas. Free, with no sign-up. We teach the process; you buy directly from the official seller.

Your path

1. Decide: Your goal and your investable cash first, then the strategies that fit them (about 2 minutes).
2. Learn: How investing works, starting with property types and the seminar pitches to avoid; your strategy’s lessons are listed in Decide.
3. Practice: Buy a fictional property step by step before you risk real money.
4. Your team: Line up a lender, agent and the other professionals before you make an offer or bid.
5. Find deals: Where to look in your state and county, starting with official sources.
6. Analyze a deal: Run the numbers on a real deal and work through buying it.

Lessons

• Types of property: Houses, condos, small and large apartment buildings, retail, office, industrial and land.
• Seminar red flags: How seminar and coaching scams work, the warning signs regulators found, and how to evaluate financing without sales pressure.
• Tools and tricks of the trade: Records, maps, comps and checklists investors use to research a property.
• Analyzing a deal: Value, repairs, rents, expenses and returns: the numbers that decide whether a deal works.
• Traditional financing: Mortgages, commercial loans, hard-money and bridge loans: how each works and what it costs.
• Creative financing: Seller financing, partnerships and other structures, with the legal risks to know first.
• When to walk away: The numbers, building problems, title and HOA issues and auction terms that should make you pass on a deal.
• Making an offer and closing: Who your agent works for, what goes into an offer, negotiating after the inspection, and the steps from an accepted offer to the keys.
• Buying at forced sales: Tax, foreclosure, sheriff and IRS sales across Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and Texas, with step-by-step guides.
• Running a rental: The first weeks, tenant screening and fair housing, deposits, entry and rent rules in your state, and records for taxes.
• Taxes from purchase to sale: Transfer and property tax, rental income and depreciation, how flips are taxed, selling, 1031 exchanges and each state’s income tax.
• Residential vs. commercial: How the two markets differ: who buys, how prices are set, loans, leases and risk.
• Who invests where, and why: The kinds of investors in each market, and why someone picks one property type over another.
• Holding title and structuring deals: Ways to hold title, owning through an LLC, 1031 exchanges, installment sales and seller credits.
• Benefits for veterans: VA loans, the funding fee exemption, servicemember protections, and veteran property tax breaks in your state.
• Recommended reading: Books worth reading, picked for new investors.