I've been getting a lot of questions about how to get started as a real estate investor. Today I'm going to talk about how to do that.

There is a wealth of free information available to you if you have internet access. Google "learn how to flip houses" or "learn real estate investing" and you'll get hundreds of thousands of results instantly. You can do the same searches on YouTube and get similar results. Information is not the problem. Helpful, actionable step by step information is a little harder to find. The toughest part about this is how to know what is hype and what is good info. We are going to sort that out for you today.

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Questions from Listeners: Starr's Questions from RILA:

• I understand that realtors sell your property...however, what should you look for when picking the right real estate agent?
• Hey Roger, I am looking into investing...Is buying a condo a good investment?
• I am looking for a management company for my properties...What is the going price for property management and what should I look for when choosing the right one?
• Hey Roger, I am just getting into the investment game...would you advise in using hard money loans for first time investors?

Content:

How to spot a fake guru.

1. Emphasis on luxurious lifestyle. The B.S. artists feature the imagined lifestyle of the rich in their TV ads, come-on speeches, and "how-to" materials. They also accessorize themselves with flash, like ostentatious jewelry and rented limousines or rented private jets.
2. Subjective self description. The "about-the-authors" of the gurus I respect are generally written in Jack Webb style: "Just the facts, Ma'am." B.S. artists tend to have book jacket or ad copy which describes them as the "leading real estate expert in the United States today" or the "Number One, most-sought-after..." Their bios are full of baseless, subjective adjectives and nouns, like "innovative...... famous, spectacularly successful," "authority," etc. B.S. artists often use photographs or videotape of themselves hanging around executive jets, limos, yachts, mansions, five-star hotels, exotic resorts, or expensive cars to imply that they have achieved great financial success.
3. No pitfalls or corrections. There are dangers in everything. But you rarely read about danger in a book by a real estate B.S. artist—or hear about it in one of his CDs or TV infomercials. Everybody makes mistakes. But you rarely read about a guru's mistake or see a correction in a B.S. artist's newsletter. The B.S. artists are self-proclaimedly big on being "positive." And one of the things they're positive about is that the dream world they depict will not be marred by unpleasant reality. It's better for you to learn from the mistakes of others than to reinvent the wheel and lose your money in the process.

On the other hand, worthwhile gurus are as likely to write about mistakes made (often by the guru himself/herself) and dangers overlooked as about spectacular profits achieved. And all ethical periodicals writers run corrections when they make a mistake.

1. No bad news. In addition to teaching techniques, real-estate investment gurus have to respond to news like court decisions, legislation, economic trends, and so forth. Of course, some of the news is bad. But the B.S. artists invariably respond to bad news in Pollyanna fashion. They always see "opportunity." The closest they come to acknowledging the unhappy truth is to describe a situation as a "challenge."

B.S. artists don't acknowledge bad news is that they simply cannot shut off their slinging mechanism. They are B.S. kinda guys. There's nothing wrong with looking for opportunity in ostensibly bad situations. Many of my shows have done just that. You only become a B.S. artist when you look for it, can't find it, but claim it's there anyway.

1. Universally-applicable techniques. The various techniques one can use in real estate investment are like mechanic's tools. The one you use depends on the situation and your goal. Just as no tool is appropriate for every mechanical job, neither is any real-estate-investment technique appropriate for every situation. Each has advantages and disadvantages and most are only useful in a narrow range of circumstances. The B.S. artists trot out one obscure technique after another in an effort to impress the customer with all the "new" material they are getting. But rarely is a word spoken about when the technique is appropriate. The reader or listener is left with the impression that the technique is appropriate for any and all acquisitions.
2. Emphasis on motivational material. Every successful person I know has benefited from motivational books like The Power of Positive Thinking. Many of us have had life experiences like emotional high-school football pep talks which gave dramatic evidence of the power of focused motivation. I would not diminish the role of motivation in success in real estate or any other field. However, motivational material ought to be packaged as such.

When books or CDs are described as containing how-to information on real-estate investment, they ought to contain little or no motivational material. The protest that the customer "needs" to be motivated is beside the point. It is dishonest to promise how-to information, then deliver a bunch of "You-can-do-it" platitudes instead. The motivational business, like patriotism in Samuel Johnson's memorable phrase, is one of the last refuges of scoundrels. Although there are many who approach the field of motivation with rigorous scientific discipline, there are more for whom the motivation business is merely a con —a chance to sell yet another cure-all "elixir" without having to get FDA approval.

1. Claim to do lots of deals. Virtually all the B.S. artists say, "I don't just teach these techniques. I use them every day in my own investment program." Baloney. There aren't enough hours in the day.

Gurus get the same 24-hour days as you. Being an expert takes time. We have to read many trade journals, loose-leaf services, and books to keep up to date. We have to spend hours on the phone interviewing sources for articles and books —and hours in the library researching legal cases and other relevant facts. As experts, gurus get interviewed by the media on the phone and in radio and TV studios and they make speeches to investors. Finally, we have to manage the guru business itself. That means designing brochures, responding to customer-service problems, checking proofs from the printer, indexing books, negotiating with printers and recording studios, going over the income and expenses of the guru business, and so forth.

Obviously, we do not, after all that, have as much time as non-gurus do for investing. But in the financial guru business, the question, "Are you using these techniques yourself or just teaching them?" is ubiquitous. And any answer but, "Oh, yes," seems devastating to the credibility of the guru. In fact, real-estate gurus (other than those who just dabble in guruing) who do a deal a month or more are extremely rare. Or they are buying garbage properties by the dozen—with little or no analysis or due diligence—mainly so that they can claim they do lots of deals and be technically accurate.

1. High prices. Legit real estate books cost about $20 to $80 depending on whether they sell in book stores or only by mail. Mail-only books cost more because fewer are sold, press runs are shorter, and printing and handling costs per unit are higher. Legit real-estate seminars cost up to $500 per day. B.S. artists charge hundreds for their books and thousands for their "boot camps," "training," and "mentoring" services.

The Top Ten Ways to Know Your Real Estate Seminar is Actually a Con:

1. The "nationally known" guru is not in attendance.
2. 1. Whose experience is being taught?
   2. Who has the experience to be able to credibly answer audience questions?
   3. What is the actual experience of the presenter and can it be verified?
   1. Where is their headquarters?
   2. Who is the person or persons behind this company? Someone did the work to gain the experience to teach.
   3. This can be taught from a curriculum and a powerpoint, but the most polished professional who is also inexperienced cannot truly serve a real estate audience.
3. The name of the company behind the event is vague, not mentioned, or purposely mis-leading.
   1. Does he or she provide addresses of actual properties flipped?
4. The Presenter's real estate credentials cannot be easily verified.
5. The Presenter does this presentation more than once a month. If they travel and do this presentation more than once a month there is NO possible way they are actively fixing and flipping houses.
6. Early in the presentation (usually within the first two hours), they will have you fill out a worksheet with all of your assets as possible funding sources. Available credit card spending, 401k balance, cash value of insurance policies, etc. Later they will use this information to prove to you that you actually can afford their 20-50k in training.
7. They take time to teach you how to call your credit card providers and ask for an increase in your limit. The really sneaky ones will put you in a group, challenge everyone to do it, bring you back and see if you collectively came up with an amount that would buy a house.
   1. Results - lifestyle.
   2. Financial freedom
   3. Education of children - college
   4. Legacy
8. They make lots of promises to you. And they will seem great!
9. They have an emotional story of their own financial distress and real estate saved the day.
10. They will not let you take photos of the screens or record the event.
11. They want to sell you another more expensive course. Free - Low Cost - High Cost - Upgrade.

Ways to check ahead of time:

1. Check the name of the company. Look at their website. See what they emphasize.
2. Google the name of the company followed by the word "reviews." This may not be helpful, but it can be. One company I researched had over 1000 hits on a website called "Ripoff Report." Anyone can say anything there and not all of it should be believed. But 1000 reports?
3. Ask in online forums - Bigger Pockets, Connected Investors, Facebook Groups, etc. What have you heard about …?
4. At the event, get the presenter's full name. Find out where he/she is from. Note as many property addresses as you can during the event. Check those addresses online for ownership and transfers of ownership. Look for an entity that owned the property for 4-6 months in the past two years. Later on, if you get a chance to speak with the presenter, casually drop the name of the entity you found and see if you get a glimmer of recognition. If you're convinced they are lying, just for fun, make up an entity name (or use your own if you have one) and ask them if that was the entity that bought 123 Main St (or whatever). See if they say yes.

What is "good, actionable information?"

Begin with an honest and trustworthy information broker.

Verify with multiple honest sources.

Dip a toe in.

Trust further.

What is hype?

Loud excited, lots of exclamation points.

Preys on your fears

Motivational Quote: "You can't plan for everything or you never get started in the first place." ― Jim Butcher "Start before you're ready." ― Steven Pressfield "You don't have to be good to start ... you just have to start to be good!" ― Joe Sabah "A little action often spurs a lot of momentum." ― Noah Scalin "The secrets of success are getting started and being persistent." ― Debasish Mridha "Don't let perfectionism become an excuse for never getting started." ― Marilu Henner "To Begin, Begin" - Roger Blankenship