Hi Guys,
To achieve my objctives of becoming a successful real estate investor, i did some brain storming on how should I achieve my goals. I dont have any one to guide me on how to start investing in real estate or what to look for before investing etc etc. That's why I feel that the best bet for me is to do some real estate courses which will make me better poised for making investment related decisions and understanding the real estate market dynamics.

I have my bachelor of business degree and work in insurance industry. I feel confident that I am qualified enough to work through these courses. The courses that I have selected are follows:
1) Principles of Appraisal
2) Real Estate Investment Analysis

These are considered as articling courses, ontario college of real estate offers three phases for real estate education, which are as follows:

Phase 1: Real Estate as a Professional Career.
Phase 1 overviews the benefits, challenges and limitations of a real estate career. This introductory program lays the foundation for subsequent phases by detailing salesperson responsibilities, how the marketplace operates and what principles impact value, along with in-depth real estate calculations concerning listing and selling property. Students develop analytic skills and knowledge levels necessary to address advanced course materials

Phase 2: Real Estate as a Professional Career.
Phase 2 focuses on property ownership rights and limitations, current land registry systems and planning processes including land use restrictions. Statutory and legal requirements concerning real property and marketplace trading practices are also emphasized. Students further acquire a solid grounding in residential construction, agency relationships, and widely-accepted property valuation methods.

Phase 3: Residential Real Estate as a Professional Career or

Phase 3: Residential
Phase 3 is a challenging, workshop-oriented course designed for practical demands of today's residential marketplace. The program stresses drafting skills for agency documents, residential agreements of purchase and sale (including condominium), and agreements to lease.

Phase 3 follows the residential real estate transaction from initial listing to final negotiations and closing. Students encounter real-life scenarios demanding skills in offer preparation, counter-offers, clause writing, mortgage financing, and use of standardized forms and procedures.

Please advise if its is a good idea to go ahead with the plan that I have ? If I choose this path would i be seccessful?
What obstacles could I face?.

I'll appreciate your input in this regard

Trying to learn some things so you have the basics is helpful, but more important go and find an experienced real estate agent that does a lot of investment business. There is no way a classroom will replace real world experience.

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I'll save you time with the Appraisal coures:
The appraisal is nothing more than the way the lender justifies making the loan; market value is determined by what a buyer will pay.

Tip #2: Hang tight. The market will drop further.

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Bob

Does this mean that you can depend on a real estate agent for getting you good invetment deals without having adequate knowledge yourself, of what you are getting into.?

How can a beginner know that if an agent is not just taking care of his/her personal interests but also taking care of the client interests adequately. I belive the only way to know that is to have some knowledge yourself.

How does real estate investor cope with a slow down in market. Are rental properties (residential or commercial) a good alternative when a slowdown hit the market.

Excellent questions.

Taking classes wont get you up to speed fast enough to do any good. This is where experience counts the most.

re: agents

In most states an agent has a fiduciary responspibilty to you. That means your interests come before his. Now while there are many honest agents out there, you also need one who has a more than a clue. Advising one on investment property is not the same as meeting Joe & Mary Buyer at an open house and showing them homes in their price range with the right number of beds/bath/sq footage.

Most of my investors (not those who flipped homes in a spiraling market where you could buy an outhouse and double your money a month later) buy property like they buy stocks. Its very bottom line with little emotion. They want to see numbers, and they tend to deal more worse case than pie in the sky, so finding an agent who pre-dates this last bull market is a benefit because they know firsthand what a worse case market can do to an investment portofolio. They also need to understand the different dynamics of a market.

For example, you asked about rental properties. If you just want a safe return on your money for a long term hold, then rentals in markets as volatile as mine in San Diego are a decent deal. The reason here is that we lost a huge amount of rental units to the condo converters. So with low rental inventory and home prices still 8-10x income, rents are not going to go down anytime soon. The one caveat to that in San Diego is downtown where many of the buyers over the last 4 years were speculators.

So first off you really need to define your goals in light of your financial resources and time frames:

Are you trying to make a quick return on your money?

Are you going to buy and hold? If so, for how long?
Many who buy and hold have a strategy of adding to their portfolio and using the positive cash flow on subsequent properties to pay off the first one, then once that one is paid off, to take the payment you used to make and apply it to the second. Done right one can acquire new property as deals present themselves while rather quickly paying off the whole portfolio.

What kind of investment property are you comfortable with, or does it matter?

Can you afford to carry a property for a few months while evicting a tenant and then updating or making repairs?

IMO the most important thing you can do now is not to learn how to be an agent, but learn about safe, sound investing. And be patient.

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Bob