Prerequisites aren't something you have to complete before moving on. They are things that are vital for you to do while learning. You should always be doing some of the big three, networking, reading, podcasts. It's important to take time to do a little of each every week no matter where you are in your business. Just don't try to do too much.
Networking
There are several sites that you can join for real estate networking. For now it's important to not get side tracked. Only sign up for the 2 below. They are the big ones and most of what we want to accomplish can be done with them.
Meetup
Meetup.com is one of the best pure networking sites out there. Sign up for free and find local groups that do live meetups for just about anything you can think of. Of course you will use it for real estate. Join at least 2 real estate investor groups in your area. (the more the merrier you don't have to go to the events. Use keywords like real estate investing, wholesaling, discount properties and more. For now just look into what meetups you might like to go to.
Bigger Pockets
Biggerpockets.com is possibly the biggest real estate investor site out there. It is a great resource, they have a great podcast as well. The site has a large forum and a bunch of blog posts. Watch out though there is a bunch of negativity but at least you get to hear the bad with the good. Join the site and look around but limit your time on it. It can be a time suck. You will use it more later in the course.
Explore these sites quite a bit. Create profiles and with bigger pockets you can start learning right away.
Back to topBuilding a Solid Base - Books to Start you out right!
This task will be the easiest for you and was not going to be required but after a lot of thought I decided that requiring it was necessary.
Its simply get your hands on the three books below and start reading them in the order they are mentioned. You can follow the links for our reviews of those books or search on Amazon orBarnes and Noble.
Buy them new, used, ebook, whatever it takes but these three books will give you a solid base to work from and will help you understand concepts in the later training.
Commit to reading as much as possible but don't let it stop you from completing the other tasks.
The below list of books are listed because they are geared to making you a more efficient person and business. They are a mix of business and real estate books that help make you and your business much more effective.
First on the list is getting things done by David Allen. This book is first because it will help you setup your business and your life in a way to plow through projects and tasks much more efficiently. The extra time gained by organizing your life and business in the ways described will save you time, money and relieve you from a ton of stress.
The general idea is to organize everything you do into lists, but the lists are built in a way that increases efficiency. The lists aren't just lists of what you need to do but more importantly the next step to move the project or task forward. On top of this the lists are divided in ways that allow you to get right to work based on where you are and what you are doing.
An example is a list of tasks that are done on the computer. This would be a computer list or office list. Are you in the office at your computer, pull up your computer list and go right to work with little down time. The other thing this books helps alleviate is the constant clutter in your brain. It is amazing how much organizing your day to day tasks in appropriate way frees your mind from the stress of reliving everything in your head over and over again. This will help you sleep better at night.
The next book is Traction by Gino Wickman. This book will get your business setup for success. Set it up in a way that allows you to find problems quickly. Use simple techniques to structure everything in a way that allows you to scale successfully without straining what you have already built.
The millionaire Real Estate Agent is a time tested book for understanding how to stay on top of leads and scale the real estate side of your business without letting your leads fall through the cracks. Even though it is written for agents, I put this in the mix because the ideas for staying on top of leads in this book are just as good for staying in front of investor leads. (There is an investor version but until I read it I don't feel that I can put in here. I'm sure it's great though.)
That's it, once you get these books in some way or another. Start reading or listening to them in the order presented. There are many important concepts from each book that we will be using in the future.
Podcasts to follow
Now that you have a few things to read, so let's get a couple of things to listen to while you're driving, mowing your lawn, or whatever downtime you might have.
You can always try to download audio versions of the books as well but here we will talk about a couple of podcasts that do a great job talking about real estate. They keep it real talking about the good and the bad.
First off is Flip Talk with Don Costa.
Don does a really good job breaking things down explaining how he runs his business. He goes into all the ups and the downs which is great. He also has a 2nd podcast called The Rookie Playbook which is essentially a start from scratch in real estate to getting scaling your business to do multiple deals per month. This would be a great supplement to the course and coaching here.
The second (third technically) is The Titanium Vault with RJ Bates.
It's one the newer podcasts I like. Just really good straight-to-the-point real estate investing. Great marketing information as well as quite a bit of talk on partnering with others to grow. RJ is in several locations and utilizes partnerships to make it work. Also check out his youtube series 50 deals in 50 states in 50 days.