There is an abundance of ways to learn about real estate. I of course recommend that you speak your local real estate expert – namely your Century 21 office, but aside from that it's probably never been easier to come to grips with most aspects of real estate. The internet in particular had made the exchange and access of information incredibly easy and rapid. What is interesting however is that one of the most referred to books when it comes to real estate investment was first published in 1959 and is still incredibly relevant today – you just need look on Amazon to confirm it!
William Nickerson wrote the book that is still snapped up by the masses - How I Turned $1,000 Into A Million In Real Estate—In My Spare Time. I know there are a ridiculous number of books on the market promising the secrets to wealth through property, but when you consider Nickerson's book was way ahead of best sellers like Rich Dad, Poor Dad this is the book on how to get rich from real estate that possibly started it all. Many still believe it's the best of its genre.
His basic principal is to buy properties that need a bit of work, fixing them up and renting them out at a higher rate. The equity gained through this lets you trade up to larger properties. Nickerson himself started with a duplex and works up to a 30 unit apartment complex. Some of what he has to say I tend to disagree with – such as the recommendation to never use the same real estate agent you used to buy a property to help you sell it later. He says this is because the agent will have the low price you paid stuck in the back of his mind and he'll try to get you to accept less in order to close a deal. I can't say I agree with that when you consider your agent is striving to get the best possible price for a property, and are required to do so by law. Perhaps things in the USA in the late 50s were a tad different, so like anything translating to this day and age, you need to take it with a grain of sale.
But in a nutshell it's a great read, and considering the man has since published installments to his first tales of wealth from real estate every 10 years or so, it would seem he does possibly know what he's talking about. His $1 million reference became $2 million and then $5 million, so his story is probably not a bad place to start for wannabe investors. It's also good for seasoned real estate shoppers to refer back to, unless you've surpassed his $5 million of course, and in which case you should be writing a book of your own I imagine.