I have been a realtor for ten months now and I want to branch off into investing. What is a good way to start? Are there any good books I can read for a beginner or is there a course I can buy?

I went into multi-family after 5 months in the field. I stumbled upon an investor that bought an 11 unit apartment building from me and from what I learned during that transaction, I focused on investing. I educated my clients on investing in real estate and built a website geared around investing. My next move is farming areas for multi-family to sell. I am selling 2 four-plex's in a few months that I sold last year. Although I never read a book to learn what I know now, There should be one you can read.

Realtor.org has a pretty good read to start...it's called "Field Guide to Investing in Real Estate". Mr. Landlord has several good Q&A forums where you can read past posts and learn from more seasoned investors. Books by Bryan Wittenmyer and Gary Eldred are a couple of the better authors out there. Leigh Robinson's "Landlording" is a decent book on property management. Subscribe to newsletters (they are write offs for you, so why not) from Bob Bruss, John Schaub, Jack Miller, and Mr. Landlord and simply stick your head into RE books, talk to investors that you come across, and join your local real estate association to begin.

Scour your local MLS rental listings to get a feel for what market rents are for your area's respective types of housing. As a Realtor, that's a great resource to have if you're also an investor.

There are lots of good books. Just go to your local bookstore and look under investing.

You may want to look up a real estate investment club in your area. As a new and "in-training" agent you may need a bit of a thick skin initially since many of these investors don't think very highly of most agents. However, when you can actually show how you can be of benefit you will find you have an almost unlimited source of buyers and Hard Money Lenders. One other caution.... many "members" will be wantabe investors and will ask you for CMA's BPO's and information on Expires, data on FSBO's so be careful how you work into the group.... your services are of value and should never be for free. The southern area of your state has high potential for large scale investment opportunities and a potential for working with consortium's from out of country groups interested in investments of larger scales and some just individual single family residential properties. I presently work with 3 as a result of initially doing my own investments in real estate.

Stop by our site, BiggerPockets.com. We've got a ton of great resources, articles, and more to help you start out! Email me with any questions.