Some people are told that if they find a good real estate agent and get a low-interest loan from the bank they can be a real estate investor. You can do it that way but in my opinion you’re just someone who bought a piece of property.

Well, after much trial and error I learned that most people need to learn HOW to be a real estate investor. Performing your due diligence and figuring out how being a real estate investor and owning property will work for you is essential to becoming a successful real estate investor.

There are four main steps you need to take to learn how to be a real estate investor:

1. Define your goals and constraints. Write down your goals and then write down your constraints. Are you a handy person who can fix things when they break? Do you have a limited amount of cash and therefore need a loan? All of these things need to be considered.

2. Select one of the four basic strategies. Learn the four main investment strategies available to a real estate investor:

Flipping: a great investment with high and quick returns
Wholesaling: quick way to make profits without fixing or managing tenants
Owning the note: be the bank, not the owner and earn the interest
Buying and holding: long-term growth with appreciation and cash flow

3. Personalize your strategy. After you select your strategy figure out how to make it work for YOU. This is where you really learn how to be a real estate investor. Start by understanding how different situations have impacted what and where other investors have bought, and decide what will influence your strategy. Check out our blog and read some investor stories to get an idea of how being a real estate investor will work for you.

4. Make it happen. You've done your homework about what works for you, now take it and apply it. Decide if you want to be a hands-on investor, more passive where you let someone else do the majority of the work, or somewhere in the middle?

Don’t get hung up on any one step in this process, but work through all of them to assess what type of real estate investor you might be. There’s so much information on the member portion of HowManyDoors that will teach you how to be a real estate investor including real-life examples, checklists and how-to guides. I invite you to join now!