Hello all
First i want to give perhaps a little background on myself:
-I'm 22 years old and i have just graduated college with a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from a university in the metro Detroit area.
-Through my years in college i have worked various internships. As such i started investing some of my money in the stock market. I have made steady returns and still plan to continue investing in the stock market. I have also saved up some cash of around $8k. With that number growing quickly over the next few months due to me having started a decently paid full time engineering job. Also being able to sell some stock investments if i feel necessary.
-I have read a few good investing books. However at the start of this year i read "the book on rental property investing" by Brandon Turner and that's sort of what made me interested in real estate investing. I wanted to start learning/researching etc my last semester of my senior year. However due to some senior projects taking up 40+ hours of my week i decided i would wait until i graduated.
-Now i have a fair bit of free time on my hands and i want to start investing in real estate.

My original plan had been to purchase a house with either an FHA loan or a conventional 97 loan (i have a decent credit score of around 750) and then house hack with 2 or 3 other roommates. I have around 3 months until my lease is up on my current apartment and i was hoping to have a home purchased so that i can move in directly after my lease is up. I would prefer if i didn't have to extend my lease for another 6 months as frankly it is just a bit too expensive for my liking. However i could probably find some temporary housing for a month or two if i really needed. I am also thinking about going back to school in a year. Part of that deal is that the university will provide me with housing, so i likely would not be living in whatever home i purchase.

However i have now been thinking about if I'm leaving too much on the table and if i should just throw myself in the deep end with a traditional brrrr or perhaps a house flip. I know everybody says you cannot get rich quick. However i am young and as a result i feel like i am not risk averse and that i definitely have the possibility to take some risks that others might not. I have effectively been working for the past 2 years as a full time engineer (although under the title as an intern). And i have basically made the decision that engineering is the right field for me, however even at that i cannot see myself doing it for the next 40 years. So i definitely want to find something to replace my income so i can spend my time doing exactly what i want to do.

I guess my question really boils down to what you all would do if you were in my situation?. Any advise, suggestions, experience or even connections would be much appreciated!

Another important thing for me to mention is that i am (or was) an international student on an F1 Visa. So hello to any fellow international students here!!. What it means however is that i have 3 years that i can continue working on my current visa (F1 Visa with STEM OPT-for those interested ;) ) until i need to get a more permanent (and not guaranteed) work visa. So if anybody has any specific experience or advice with a situation like mine i would greatly appreciate any help you can give me.

I thank you for any help in advance!
Lukas Obel

Detroit, Michigan

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