It appears that housing prices are starting to flatten out in my area, while rents are rising. So my interest in learning how to find, buy, and manage a rental property of my own is back, but I’m getting tired of plodding through my Modern Real Estate Practice textbook. By chance, I noticed that my local community college also offers some short non-credit courses in Real Estate Investing. Here are some sample listings that caught my eye:
Elements of Small Property Investment
Learn easy-to-use rules to analyze income property for sale or purchase. Includes terms, evaluation forumulas, and analysis sheets used to recognize a profitable venture.
(3 hour class, $45)
Real Estate Investing
Compare the myth of real estate investing to reality. Class covers sources of funding, potential for growth and risk of loss, legal framework, tax structure, rules and consequences.
(3 hour class, $49)Buying Fixer Uppers
Focus on all aspects of buying fixer-uppers either to sell or live in. Includes finding the property, estimating rehab costs, getting financing, etc. Includes tour of prospective property.
(All-day 8 hour class, $69)
I’m sure the quality of the course will depend on the instructor that happens to teach the course, but it does sound interesting and I’m sure there are worse ways of spending an evening. Of course, I probably won’t be truly serious since we aren’t going to be living here that much longer. But it’s never too early to learn about this stuff.
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There is a lot of talk these days about real estate slowing down and “flattening”. However, I hear there are still some areas in the U.S. that are still on the incline. Does anyone know where to find a listing of cities and their percentage incline/decline? All that is ever mentioned on t.v. are the big cities: New York, L.A., etc.
Why delay? Even if you move out of state, you can still be a remote landlord via a property manager. If rents are rising and you can make the numbers work (meaning positive cash flow) then take the plunge now.
where are city do you live in? just wondering… 🙂
Well, it doesn’t really matter if it’s flattening if you want to buy, eh? =) I guess it’s more that the gap between rent and mortgage is narrowing, so if you perhaps found a foreclosure or other buying opportunity you could get a cash-flow positive house.
mc – That I’ll have to learn as well.
Nina – True. Gotta find a good property manager though. Through all my renting I have found a LOT of incompetent ones that are lazy and unreliable.
I live in the Pacific Northwest.
Being a landlord is tough eneough as it is,even more so when you live out of state and have to rely on a “property manager”.
Real estate investing has a lot of upsides in my opinion. I bought the house I am in now from a foreclosure site and have had a great experience. My intention at the time was to continue to buy investment properties, but the pool of possible properties that met my cashflow requirements quickly shrunk at that time (late 2003). After that I chose to get my real estate license (in DE) and am seeing a lot of interesting things happen to the market?.If you are buying for increase in price, I would stay away from real estate investment for a long time. If you want to become a landlord, opportunities may start presenting themselves in the coming year. I can only speak for my area though?.
Those classes sound pretty good, and for the price you can’t rally loose. Attainment of more knowledge can never really be bad. Of the three, I would recommend the first, modern real estate practice barely touches the surface of those topics and spending some time to consider what requirements you have to make the investment worth while ( cap rate ) would be a good idea.
Regards
I’ve found that purchasing newer homes in good locations can minimize the risks out of state landlording. The homes I have been buying have had above average appreciation (due to the newness and location of the homes), all with very little down (5-10%) and with a break even or slightly negative cashflow.
Email me and I’ll be glad to help out if any questions you have.
Jonathon,
Here’s an idea for a blog topic, maybe even throw in a few java calculators to calc the ratios for readers.
http://www.fpanet.org/journal/articles/2006_Issues/jfp0106-art6.cfm
There is way more to this than you can learn in a one-day course. I spent an entire semester in an MBA program studying real estate investing and I have a pretty good “working knowledge,” but by no means am I an expert. There are numerous factors that need to be considered in addition to cap rates, tax issues, long-term planning and a whole host of other stuff. Be careful before you leap.
I just got a flyer from my local community college with a whole section of non-credit courses called “Money Matters”. One of them is ‘buy real estate with your 401k’…
Anyone out there in Cincinnati area know of any classes similar to this?
Is there a list of classes available in all areas?
Nice and interesting post. The comments were also great though. I really enjoyed reading this one and I really learned a lot from it. Thanks! =)