"I've been to all the seminars and read all the books. I've even listened to the CDs, but I just don't know where to start my investing career!" Ah...the all-too-common beginner's plea for help!

Knowing how and where to begin real estate investing is a valid concern. Though, I'm 12 years into my own investing career, I remember as though it were yesterday, my feelings of uncertainty about how to take the first steps in what would become my livelihood.

Let me tell you about the scarcity of information on real estate investing as it was when I started. Investor clubs? I sure couldn't find one in my area in those days. Also unlike today, where major book stores dedicate entire business sections to real estate investing, I had to scrounge the shelves of local libraries for out-of-print, dusty, moldy-smelling, real estate reading materials.

What a difference time makes. The person starting out as a real estate investor today is faced with the opposite as a challenge. There's an overload of information about real estate investor strategies. This overwhelming information is the main reason so many become confused. I've discussed this dilemma with enough people in search of their first steps as an investor to relate on the highest level. I feel your pain!

Here's my suggestion as to what you do prior to choosing any one strategy over another. First things first! The goal of any investor is to make money. And making lots of money is perhaps the biggest focus of most of those. It's no secret real estate investing is full of fortune hunters clamoring to get in the gold rush. Stepping over their own two feet, they stumble and bumble as though in perpetual darkness. Many give up and go back to their little cubicle of life. Off comes the cape. The super hero retreats from his dreams.

To choose a clear path, you must first know why it is you want to take the trip in the first place. Sounds simple doesn't it? Well it isn't. It's been said a good salesman can sell to most because 90% of the people wandering around don't even know what they want. Same with investors. The only goal is to be rich! A millionaire! Yet most never take a moment's notice that to make money in this business is to solve problems for others.

Your mission after attending a multi-day event is to go out and solve problems for as many property owners as you can find. That's were the missing link can be discovered.

You come home from a real estate seminar, all fired up to be a rehabber. Fix it and flip it! Only problem is, your area has a soft market for resells. Who you gonna sell it to? That was my first amateur challenge. I found the properties. Fixed them nicely enough, but no one was buying in those days. I was stuck, or so I thought. It didn't take me long to figure out instead of selling my rehabs, I should keep them and rent them out. There was a strong renters' market. With my beginners luck, I accumulated many rental properties, and the cash flow quickly surpassed my salary at my day job.

Your mission, find the demand in the market where you plan to invest

Figure out what's going on in your market. Far too many "newbies" attempt to bring a supply of goods (strategies) where there is no demand.

What's going on? Are rehabs going galore? If so what is the exit strategy of the rehabber? Is she fixing to resell, or keep as a rental? Are home owners suffering huge numbers of foreclosures? If so get in set up the plan to rescue these people with a quick purchase. Perhaps you live in an area where home owners are aging and moving on to retirement communities. If so, the opportunities are many to buy these properties with huge equity margins to keep as rentals, or rehab to resell.

Keep your ear to the ground. Find out what the needs are. Find the demand, then fill it! Those most successful in life are the men and women who've found a way to make life easier, more bearable for the rest of us. Gotta go. Now, it's time for me to order my groceries. I'm eager to pay the company who created the online grocery ordering service. They keep me from having to jump in my car and drudge in misery up and down the food isles.

They sure solved my problem and made my life easier, didn't they?

Here's an example of what I mean. Let's say you've just returned from a workshop all about renovating houses only to find out that in your small town of neatly kept homes, there are few properties needing renovation. Instead, upon further research you discover there's a bigger market of investors looking for rental properties. Your strategy is to supply that demand! In this case your approach should be to locate properties to either wholesale to other investors looking for rentals or keep a few for your own portfolio. Hey, you might even place buyers in your properties on a lease option program.

Another great example of bringing the wrong goods to a market's demand involves short sales and the scorching hot markets from a year ago. When I first heard about a "short sale" whereby a bank agrees to discount a loan balance payoff on a property with little or no equity, I was beside myself with excitement. Problem was, I invested in Washington DC, which was on fire in real estate sales, thus pushing appreciation through the roof monthly. Uh huh, the bank's loss mitigation teams laughed at any unknowing investor who approached with the objective of discounting a loan on a prospective property.

At that time, the banks had little reason (can't blame them) to negotiate with investors in the hot markets. They were certain to get the full payoff from an over-zealous buying frenzy. But now that the markets have cooled, the banks are ready to talk again to investors. The savvy investor who understands "short sales" and how to negotiate them, is poised to make a financial killing. But now the timing is right in those markets, where not long ago the opposite was the case.

That's just two examples to illustrate my point. Never is it my intention to bash anyone's investing strategy. No matter what path or strategy you choose it won't work unless you do. It will require rolled up sleeves from time to time and digging in of your heels helps during the low points of discouragement and fading enthusiasm. So, roll up your sleeves and get out of the safety of your cocoon and see for yourself what's going on in your area.

Here's another tip to get you started, join a real estate investor's association. They're everywhere these days. Be sure to look for an association where there are active investors doing real deals. Beware of the fakes and phonies who are only out to impress you with theory...oh, and also to collect your money with little training in return. You should be able to join a group where membership is less than $200.00 annually, per person.

Next, go out and take inventory of the housing stock in your area. Note whether there's mostly new construction or 50-year old properties in need of their second or third major face lift. Then make note of the action you see such as how many renovation projects are going on in the area. Perhaps you live in a rural area where vacant farmland is beginning to receive the attention of out-of-state shopping mall developers and big box retail stores ie. "The Walmarts." Whatever is happening in real estate there's always a strategy for making money. You just have to know what to do in any given situation and in any market, especially your own. Even in a flat market there are strategies for making money. I made some of my best money buying houses in the slow resale market of the mid 1990s.

First, go out and conduct a reconnaissance of your market. Keep your ears and eyes open and the market will speak volumes to you. Remember, this is a public service we provide as investors. What we do, when done correctly, contributes greatly to the financial well being of our communities. And finally, be on purpose!