The world of real estate can seem quite distant and impossible to enter for someone who isn’t familiar with it. If you’ve never dealt with property, it can seem intimidating. And to be realistic - it’s big numbers that are being dealt with. So you have to have the required knowledge to find your way in that situation. So if the idea of dealing in real estate is something that you’re interested in, but you have no idea how to start - here are a few tips to get you going.

Go to Open Houses

Open houses are days when a property that is being sold opens its doors to potential customers who are interested in seeing it more closely. Pay attention to the things that people are looking at and the things that the real estate agent is saying. If they are drawing special attention to something, it means that is a good selling point and a popular ask that raises the price of the property. If you can, go to open houses that are in several different neighborhoods at first, and then to several in the neighborhood where you live or where you plan to operate a business, to get familiar with the offer and competition around you.

Find a Starting Point

If you want to get into real estate trading, you need to have something to trade. Sure, you can always just become the middleman, but who is going to hire you to sell their home if you’ve never sold a home before? And if you just want to flip homes - you need to have something to start with. You can always start with a loan and make your first move a purchase, rather than a sale, but an even better option is if you have some inherited property that you can flip. This is a great option because you’re not selling the sole roof you have over your head and in the worst-case scenario, you’re not at a big loss, because you haven’t invested something that is directly your own. 

Find a Niche

The narrower you get with the types of real estate you specialize in, the better knowledge you’ll have of the market and the better you’ll do financially. When you focus on a specific niche, you can follow the trends, know when and how to sell and who is going to pay the most for that type of property. All of this is information that a good real estate agent needs to have in their arsenal. If you don’t know the profile of a buyer for the type of real estate you’re selling, you might not know how to handle them. But if they’re the tenth same profile in a row, you’ll know exactly what you need to say to get them to buy.

Get Your License

To be a real estate agent, you don’t need to have gone to a special school. All you need to do is pass an exam or two and get your license. Being a real estate broker is a different story, but that is an advanced level you don’t need to worry about. Even though you might not need a degree to become an agent, it is recommended that you know the basic principles of economics and finance, because you’ll be using those on a daily basis. Some might say that a degree in human psychology will come in handy as well!

Build a Network

In real estate, it’s all about networking and who you know. Several agents might get to a property at the same time and you need to have strong relationships to make sure you don’t always pull the short end of the stick. You can meet your first contacts at open houses, but try to research networking events in your area and start rubbing shoulders with people who might be interested in the same deal as you. If you’re completely green, someone might even want to mentor you for a while to get you on your feet. Yes, you are all technical competition with each other, but you also need each other, so everyone’s working on getting along.

At the end of the day, getting into real estate is an investment and a risk like any other. Only this way, you might have a much bigger turnaround or less than if you put your money in a savings account. So think twice about whether you want to get into this, but if you do - jump in head-first and don’t look back, because a whole new world of opportunities is about to open up.