WHat is the best way to get into being a real estate investor?

Im young and willing to do anything to get into the real estate business. My dream would be to buy properties and rent/lease them or to buy, get some work done to them and sell. I know I need money in savings to do what I dream to do but Im willing to do whatever. Is it best to be a realtor? That way I can learn the ropes and make money to save. If thats the choice how do you go about that? Real estate classes? Im looking for answers about that are pretty general and relate to real estate and being a realtor. Thanks!!

I am not an investor per say, but I have made a few bucks flipping houses in my spare time. I think your first hurdle would be to get enough money to buy a house. Then everything from there is pretty easy. At least is it for me anyway. I don't have any formal education regarding this either. It's all pretty basic really - -

Buy ugliest and smallest house in a nice area or an up in coming neighborhood.

Fix it up - cosmetic fixers are a good start.

Turn around and sell it for much more than you bought it for. Don't use a realtor - selling a house is not hard. All a realtor does is find a buyer, and you can do that easy. Title, insurance, and escrow takes care of all the "hard and technical " stuff.

Viola! You just made a bundle. Now turn around and use that money to buy another house. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I am not a realator, but do invest pretty heavily in the real estate market. I do exactly what you want to do, rent out properties and flip others. (no flips this year, but getting ready!)

I ALWAYS use a broker, I accredit a lot of my profit to him and the deals he finds me when buying and the great selling he does to get me top $ when selling. I am certain that I would be short at least 50k a year w/o him.

The big advantage to being a realtor and an investor is that you can put your commission (which is 3%) toward your downpayment, sort of like instant equity. The downside is that you have to disclose that you are an agent when submitting an offer and people tend not to bargain with agents when the agent is the principle.

I have never taken any classes, as most of the "get rich" real estate classes are just scams and the only one rich is the one that wrote the book/gave the class.

I started out young, less then 20, I bought a tiny 2 bedroom house and lived in it for a couple of years. It was like free rent, as I wrote off almost all of my payments. I was able to save up and buy another (moved up to 3 bed) and I rented out house #2. While in my second house I saved money and bought a couple of foreclosures that I rented out.

The real key, for me anyway, was to never buy anything unless I was getting it WAY below market value in the first place. Don't worry too much about loving the houses, people will rent places you would not live in, you jkust want to make sure you can rent it for more then it is costing you to own it.