Find All of The Pieces

Beginning to invest in real estate is sort of like putting a puzzle together. The number of pieces the puzzle has depends on the type of deal you are trying to do, but you'll need certain pieces no matter what. So here are the pieces you'll have to find in order to get started:

1. Motivated Sellers
2. Buyers (This includes Renters, Tenant-Buyers, and straight out Buyers)
3. Title Company or Attorney

These are the three pieces you'll need for every real estate deal you'll ever do. But before you start putting the puzzle together, you have to find the pieces.

I personally think you should find your Buyers first. Talk to people you know and let them know you are getting into real estate investing and are looking for people who want to rent or buy a home so you can start using your existing network. Go on Craigslist for the areas you are looking to invest in (choosing an area is a whole other subject), and peruse the "Real Estate Wanted" ads. Anything that is an ad for someone looking for a place to rent or buy will be a potential Buyer for you. Email them and let them know that you are looking to start investing in real estate in the area they are looking to buy/rent in and ask what they are looking for. Look in the paper for the same and contact those people. Get some business cards made up and give them out to everyone you know or meet. Post ads in the paper or on Craigslist and other similar sites, put up bandit signs around the area you're looking to start investing in, talk to real estate agents who have clients who can't qualify for a mortgage and have to rent instead, etc.
Make sure you have a good system for keeping track of all of these people and what types of properties they are looking for and areas they are looking in.

The next piece of the puzzle is finding motivated sellers. The key word here is motivated - if the seller isn't motivated, you aren't going to be able to get a good enough deal anyway. There are a lot of ways to find motivated sellers, and in order to be able to do deals you'll probably have to use just about all of them. I know it kinda sucks, but I'm here to tell you the truth, not just what you might want to hear. Some of these ways are posting ads on Craigslist, in the paper, putting up bandit signs, talking to people you know, looking for vacant properties and contacting the owners, watching for properties that have been listed for a loooong time and contacting the sellers, looking for preforeclosures, etc.
Once you find them, you have to contact them and get basic information from them:

• Where is the property?
• How many beds and baths does it have?
• How much are they asking?
• etc.

You also want to try to get information that will specifically help you in being able to make a deal that will work for both of you. These are things like:

• How much do they still owe on the mortgage?
• Why are they selling?
• How quickly do they need to sell?
• What are they going to do if they can't sell it?
• etc.

And you'll need to figure out other info too:

• Does it need to be fixed up, and if so how much will it cost?
• What are the operating costs going to be for the property (property taxes, utilities, property management, etc.)?
• Is this even an area you want to invest in?
• etc.

Finally, you are going to need to have a good attorney or title company to do your deals through. They will be the ones who can do the title search and take care of all of the documentation at closing. And certain title companies will also do simultaneous closings which can be a very valuable thing to be able to do for some deals.