Hello everyone! Welcome back to another episode of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast. Today we're going to talk about the 10 Steps to Get Started In Real Estate Investing.  Step 1: This first step is super important and it's also a step that a lot of investors forget to take when they're first starting out. It is to define your why. This is important because your why sets the standard for your journey and what it’s going to look like. Consider what it is that you actually want. Do you want to do this passively? Are you trying to do this full-time to get out of your W-2? Do you want cash flow? Do you want appreciation? Do you want to be passive, or fill every waking minute you have with real estate so that you can leave your job ASAP? There are so many different ways to invest in real estate and without knowing what you're doing it for, it's impossible to decide on the best strategy.I don't think I ever sat down and necessarily like wrote out what my WHY is, but I would highly encourage you to sit down and define your WHY. One great resource to get started with is our free WIIRE download: 10 Steps to Get Started In Real Estate.  Step 2:The next step would be to determine your competitive advantage. A lot of people want an answer on where they should invest and really it comes down to where you have a competitive advantage. Where is your network? Where do you know the market really well? Wherever that is, go to that market. Really think about where can you make the biggest bang for your buck and where you have a competitive advantage. Step 3:We are so passionate about number three: analyzing your personal financial situation. This is such a basic necessity when you are deciding how to get started in real estate investing. It's very important to have a solid personal financial base because real estate investing is running a business. So if you can't manage your own finances, you are not going to be able to manage a business's finances, especially on the scale of hundreds of thousands of dollars. You don’t have to be great at math, but you do have to know how to run the numbers, punch those numbers into a spreadsheet, and know what those numbers are telling you. Step 4:Choose a strategy. There are a million different strategies in real estate investing and within those strategies, there are a million more. More often than not, you will come across one of these strategies:Buy-and-holdFlippingWholesalingShort-term rentalsMid-term rentals (get the deets inside our course, here!)BRRRR Step 5:Your crystal clear deal criteria - this can also be called your ‘Buy Box’. This is where you set standards and a vision for your perfect deal and start looking for properties that fall within that ‘Buy Box’. This is a really important step because a lot of investors get analysis paralysis. But if you have specific criteria in mind and find a property that falls within the criteria, this is a way to hold yourself accountable when you find a property that falls within your search criteria. Step 6:Ask yourself: are you going to invest locally or out of state? There are pros and cons to renting in your own state as well as out of state. We like to say that local investing is easier to get started, but harder to systemize, because you get caught up in doing the day-to-day things. Whereas out-of-state investing can be really hard to get up and running and get under control, however, once you do it can run like a well-oiled machine because you are not doing anything but managing the people you have in place. Step 7:Hire out! This is a huge decision for your real estate business. But the good news is that just because you choose to do DIY to begin with, that doesn't mean that you're stuck with DIY forever! Additionally, if you're not already a handy person, I wouldn't necessarily try to learn DIY on a rehab. It can be tough and time-consuming. Start small with cosmetic fixes (painting, adding some new hardware, etc.), instead of a full-gut project. Step 8:Check out one (or all) of our FAVORITE reads all about investing!Any of these reads by David GreeneThe Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner Step 9:Check out our favorite kind of free resource: podcasts! We were self-taught investors and so much of our knowledge was gained for free or through very minimal investment (books, see above). Real Estate BiggerPockets PodcastBiggerPockets Rookie PodcastThink Like A CEO with Gary Keller and Jay Papasan  Step 10:Join our community for women in real estate called, The Community. It consists of a monthly masterclass from an industry expert, a monthly LIVE Q&A with us, and a Community Dashboard where you can network and ask all of your burning questions. It is a very low-cost way to gain so much knowledge and get to meet other female investors. We hope you got all you need to get started. Catch you next time!  Resources:Grab our free download: 10 Steps to Get Started In Real EstateDouble your income with our Mid-Term Rentals Profit AcademyJoin The CommunityAny of these reads by David GreeneThe Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon TurnerReal Estate BiggerPockets PodcastBiggerPockets Rookie PodcastThink Like A CEO with Gary Keller and Jay Papasan 

Hello friends! Welcome to the very first episode of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast with Amelia and Grace. We’re so excited you’re here! In this first episode, we’re going to tell you a little bit about our backgrounds and also dive into the lessons we’ve each learned during our investing journey. Amelia’s StoryAmelia is a 30-year-old investor from Des Moines, Iowa whose investing journey started in 2019 when she bought her first property with her parents to flip. In June 2020 they sold that property and she decided she no longer wanted to flip properties but instead wanted to buy rental properties so that she could earn passive income every single month. Her plan was to use a portion of the proceeds from that flip to put down payments on her next rental properties. Prior to that, she had spent about two years researching properties and trying to talk her parents into joining her on the real estate adventure before they finally gave in and none of them have ever looked back. When they finally said ‘yes’ they purchased a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom property for only $28,000, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  Amelia firmly believes in just getting started. When they finally finished the flip and sold the property they moved on to purchasing a tri-plex in her hometown. Knowing it already had tenants living in it and being in pretty rough shape Amelia was driven by providing safe and clean housing to residents of her own community. Since then, Amelia has continued to grow her real estate portfolio and now has 30 doors across the state of Iowa. One of Amelia’s biggest lessons learned was how to get creative and just roll with the punches. Another note Amelia leaves us with is failure is not an option. Know how to pivot and problem-solve: if you cannot do those things real estate may not be the best fit for you. Lastly, she learned that if you show other people (friends, family, or close-knit network) what you're doing and that you're making money and having success, they're going to want to get involved. Grace’s StoryPrior to getting into real estate, Grace actually had already established an Instagram following by posting about her love of reading. Once she made the pivot (changing her entire presence on Instagram) she met Amelia. Grace originally went to school for engineering and after only one year Grace made the pivot into real estate. As a New Years’ Resolution with Amelia they started a Meet-Up, and the rest, as they say, is history.Grace began her real estate career by partnering with her sister and her boyfriend and together they purchased their first property in 2021. A few months later they purchased a few more and had a total of three properties (five doors). She felt like this was the right move for her and with the ability to go back to her old job (or find a new job) - and was in a debt-free comfortable position to take this chance. “You can do anything and everyone is an entrepreneur. Just put yourself out there. You just have to decide.”Another piece of advice Grace gives to anyone starting on the real estate journey is to double your timeline and your budget. Don’t start with a full gut (like she did - which thankfully worked out in her favor).Now, Grace has a total of 20 doors in her real estate portfolio, all within about 20 minutes of where she lives, self-managing all of them. But what Grace is really excited about is what is just ahead of her. Nothing. There is nothing in Grace's pipeline and she's pumped to be able to spend time reassessing and figuring out exactly where she wants to put her intention next.  “It’s ok to not know what you want to do or where you want to go. We’re all just figuring it out.”We both struggle with imposter syndrome (who doesn’t), but at the same time, we have learned to work through it, together. Thank you so much for tuning in to the first WIIRE episode, see you next time! Resources:Join The CommunityFind The Community on InstagramConnect with AmeliaConnect with Grace