Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. -Ayn Rand

Many of you out there I am sure have heard of Bigger Pockets. It is the place to be for anyone interested in Real Estate (RE). Basically, they are the Facebook of Real Estate.

Bigger Pockets (BP) is the real estate social network. You can find out all types of things such as how to finance rental properties, find property management companies, and how to invest in real estate.

While on my journey to learn ALL THINGS MONEY, I came across an interesting post called House Hacking.

For readers of my blog, you know I am a fan of Millennial Money (MM). Grant Sabatier is the money genius behind that site and because I was a fan of his is how I came to learn about Bigger Pockets. I learned so much from Grant that I wrote a blog post about how he inspired me to save more money.

See my post How Millennial Money inspired me to save $13,333.06 a year

It was on his website that I read about House Hacking, which is when you live in one of the multiple units of your investment property as your primary residence, and have renters from the other units pay your mortgage and expenses.

Like I stated on my last post, one of the biggest expenses in any budget is housing. The trifecta of expenses is housing, food, and transportation. If you can cut your expenses in this area, you are g2g (Good to Go). 😉

It just so happened that he did an interview with Scott Trench from Bigger Pockets. I am not the best when it comes to listening to podcasts, as I prefer to read books! However, the podcast is transcribed so I read through that. Great idea there Grant. The transcription was so good that I listened to the podcast and just like that a fan of BP was born.

Here is the link to that post HOUSE HACKING USING OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY

That is what made me decide to pick up the book How to Invest in Real Estate from Bigger Pockets authored by Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner.

I just so happened to post a tweet and saw FINCON ask what books am I reading? So I answered and tagged the authors of the book. To my surprise, Josh Dorkin replied to my tweet and said thank you for reading and asked if I would post a review on Amazon.

Thank you for asking. Just finished reading How to invest in real estate from @BiggerPockets by @jrdorkin and @BrandonAtBP and now reading #financialfreedom by @millennialmoney https://t.co/H0Rgr6yLMb

— Miriam Joy (@mjp2520) March 4, 2019

Good choice! Thanks for reading and please leave us a review on Amazon if you get a chance!

— Joshua Dorkin (@jrdorkin) March 4, 2019

Since he was polite in asking for this small request, I not only did the Amazon review (still pending as of this writing), but I also decided to review the book on my site. They say ask and you shall receive. So, I gave him a 2-for-1 and posted a review and did this blog post. One tweet did all of that.

So, without further ado…

How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

THE #1 QUESTION

The reason Brandon and Josh wrote this book was to help people. One of the most asked questions they get is, “How Do I Get Started in Real Estate Investing?”

Well, guess what? They say ask and you shall receive, right? Then Brandon and Josh answered.

They wrote this guide to help people along their way. Although, the Bigger Pockets forum and blog is filled with tons of information, it can be overwhelming. Where do you begin?

This book packs many of the interviews they do on the podcast and brings it together in one place as a reference guide.

WHAT WILL YOU LEARN

The guide contains eight chapters but my three favorites are: Chapters 1, 4, and 7.

The book will show you the following:

• How to get started in Real Estate?
• How to invest with no money, bad credit, and with a full-time job?
• Why you should save cash reserves?
• What is an LLC? Do you even need one?
• Real Estate Niches (as the riches are in niches) 😉
• 12 Ways to Finance your Real Estate Deals
• Real Estate Exit Strategies

I think the reason people choose to invest in RE is not only to get rich (obviously), but to have more financial control over their lives.

In addition, real estate is tangible. Unlike stocks, bonds, and CD’s you can drive by and visit with your investment. Have a cup of coffee in it. Heck, you can even live in it!

THE REAL WORLD OF INVESTING

Remember the television show “The Real World” on MTV. Well, that was a lot of fiction and made up drama for ratings. This book provided insight directly from RE investors with real world experience.

One of my favorite stories actually came from Chad Carson of the Coach Carson blog site. Chad decided the go big or go home route to RE was the best route for him. His niche was house flipping.

See my post on Finance Lessons from Flipping Vegas

He tested this hypothesis and decided to change courses. Instead of trying to flip 50 properties, he then decided to do less for the sake of his sanity. This method worked.

This taught me that flipping is NOTHING like the television shows portray. We are getting the Campbell Soup version (condensed). I need the 💯 real.

You must find out what works for you. Although, you can learn from the mistakes of others, usually trial and error will show you the way. Fail fast, early, and hard. Then you can start to profit from your knowledge and experience.

The book is filled with tons of stories. I just shared one.

If you want to learn more about Real Estate, then hop on over to Bigger Pockets. You can also look up some real estate blogs and books. Just like I did with this one.

Have you recently wrote a book? Are you looking for a review? Do you want to be Greenback’d? Tweet me. I’ll be here @mjp2520