About This Blog

If you’ve already read my ABOUT page, you’re now probably wondering exactly what you’ll get out of this blog if you keep reading. While I have no idea where my real estate journey will take me, I do have a vision for how I will get from square one to successful investor. And this blog will cover all aspects of that journey.

While I’ll certainly spend a lot of time discussing my personal progress as a real estate investor, my goal is to help other aspiring real estate investors by documenting my blueprint for building a real estate company. Specifically, in addition to documenting my personal progress, I hope to cover all of the following topics throughout this blog:

• The ABCs of Real Estate Investing
• Creating a Real Estate Business Plan
• Creating and Operating a Real Estate Company
• Real Estate Financial Analysis
• Real Estate Market Analysis
• Building an Investment Team
• Real Estate Investment Strategies
• Contracts and Other Legal Consideration for Investors
• Taxes and Other Financial Considerations for Investors
• Finding Properties
• Evaluating & Acquiring Properties
• Real Estate Equity Management & Financing
• Selling & Exchanging Properties

Additionally, I have created several “sticky” sections of the blog that will always be available via the main navigation bar at the top of this page. These sections currently include:

Financial Analysis

Because I am good with numbers, and because I am much better at thinking in quantitative terms as opposed to qualitative terms, I have spent a good bit of time researching the in and outs of financial analysis of investment real estate. I firmly believe that anyone who wants to be a successful real estate investor (or successful investor in general) must be able to evaluate deals in a methodical, quantitative fashion. Because I think this topic is so important, I’ve devoted an entire section of the website to this topic. In this section, I try to lay out a clear and detailed overview of the basics of RE finance, as well as a primer for how to perform financial analysis of actual deals.

Business Plan

I’ve created a section of the website that will be used to develop a full business plan for my company. I will develop the plan within various individual posts, and then pull them together in this section, with links to each relevant post. If you’re planning to start a real estate business and are looking for some inspiration for your business plan, hopefully this will help.

2008 Goals

I have also devoted a section of the website specifically to track my business and investing goals for the year. In a couple days, I plan to write a post that will enumerate all my 2008 goals, and will then provide on-going status around those goals in this section.

Resources

While I have just recently quit my job and started preparing for the move east, I’ve actually been studying Real Estate Investing (REI) for several months now. In that time, I’ve read dozens of books, and hundreds of articles and Internet newsgroup discussions. In the Resources section of this website, I have included information about many of the most helpful resources I have found and used to prepare myself for full-time investing. If you aspire to become a serious real estate investor, I recommend taking a look at each of the resources I have listed. And if you have additional resources you’d like to recommend to me and my readers, please let me know. I have to imagine some of my readers are way ahead of me in terms of knowledge and experience, and I always appreciate the help!

Throughout both my blog and the sticky sections of the website, my goal will be to discuss all the major aspects of real estate investing that I encounter in my business, and I will be as candid as possible in my experiences – both positive and negative. It may take many months or even years to cover all these topics (both in my business and in my blog), but hopefully the information I convey will help other aspiring investors not make the same mistakes I’m sure to make throughout my early investing career.