College student looking to invest in Raleigh-Durham and surrounding areas.

[Erich B Bopp]

Hi, I am a college student looking to start my real estate journey young. I understand the importance of building an income outside of real estate at this point in my life, but I would still like to take steps to acquire my first few properties in the next few years. If anyone has advice on the best investment strategies for a young first-time investor trying to get the snowball rolling it is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[Cory J Thornton]

@Erich B Bopp - I love the mindset you've adopted at such an early phase of life. My wife and I are often ask "what if we got started investing earlier?" ... If you stay the course, you won't have to worry with questions like that. 

If I was in college today, and had the resource for a downpayment on a mortgage, I would leverage a rent by the room strategy. Buy a home, rent the rooms out to friends. 

If I didn't have enough for a downpayment, then I would be trying to find a way to build capital, and experience. Can you scrape together $5k, and find a find a seasoned investor willing to let you put the cash, and your time/sweat into one of their projects? The education you receive will be better than whatever the return is on your $5k. 

From what I have seen (experienced) most full time school loads are not really full time. If you wrote down the number of hours associated with each thing you do in a week, how much time could be reallocated to working (generating an income)? Every decision has a trade off, between work and school you could sustainably choose to run at those two things 80+ hours a week. This would help you professionally and financially reach goals faster. The trade off is less of a "social life." There is nothing wrong with optimizing one path over the other, but you need to understand and be comfortable with the trade off of each path. 

Last of all, and most importantly, relentlessly prioritize getting yourself in rooms full of people who have already done what you want to do. Look into joining the Triangle Real Estate Investor Association, the NC Real Estate Investor Association, and go to as many meetings as possible. Attend the Pints and Property event @Shane Lafleur does monthly (this Thursday, downtown Raleigh). Building a real estate focused network, and maintaining those relationships will eventually lead to opportunity. 

Congratulations on getting an early start. I hope you meet you face to face at one of these local events, sometime soon!