45: Finding Your Unfair Advantage, Rural Investing, and Getting Started with Tom Sylvester

On today’s episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast, we cover a huge variety of really interesting topics with real estate investor Tom Sylvester (yes, that rhymes!)

Tom has been investing in the Rochester, NY area for several years and has a great perspective on getting started, building systems to manage your business, investing in rural areas (or as Brandon says, “rrrrrurrral”,) and a whole lot more.

Don’t miss a second of this excellent interview!

Read the transcript for episode 45 with Tom Sylvester here.

In This Show, We Cover

• Tom’s early lessons
• The advantages and disadvantages to rural investing
• Finding mentors and networking
• Talking with your spouse about getting started with real estate
• Getting started with real estate at a young age
• When is the right time to quit your day job?
• Red flags for problem tenants
• The $10 Toilet part that could have saved Tom hundreds of dollars
• And much more.

Links from the Show

• Investing in Rural Markets: The Secret to Real Estate Investing Success?
• The Top 100 Ways To Make Money In Real Estate
• How to Get Started With $100 blog post by Tom
• Keyword Alerts
• How To Survive When Your Spouse Doesn’t Believe In Your Dream
• How to Start Investing In Real Estate at a Young Age (or a “Young at Heart Age”)
• BP Podcast 044: Creating Systems to Flip Houses While Still Employed with Michael Woodward
• Tenant Screening: The Ultimate Guide
• Cashflow 101: Using the Game to Define Your Investing Strategy
• Home Depot Toilet Fill Valve
• Dropbox App

Books Mentioned in the Show

• The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich by David Bach
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• The 4 Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
• The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
• The Book on Flipping Houses by J Scott
• The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott
• What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow… And 36 Other Key Financial Measures by Frank Gallinelli
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing by BiggerPockets

Tweetable Topics

• Find your unfair advantage in business and exploit it. (Tweet This!)
• What do you want your life to be? How are you going to get there? (Tweet This!)
• If you aren’t finding success – be persistent but change your tactic. (Tweet This!)
• Know the difference between a cheap property and deal. (Tweet This!)

Connect with Tom

• Tom’s BiggerPockets Profile
• Tom’s Website: Tom-Sylvester.com

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