What would you do in my situation?

[Bennett Dickerson]

I am 19 years old and interested in Real Estate but have no tangible experience.

My involvement in investing has come through the stock market where I have been focused on building my portfolio for quite a while. This is something I have been working on and learning from for about 5 years and this interest is ultimately what got me interested in Real Estate.

Something I have taken away from BiggerPockets books and from reading online is that it is vital to start in real estate investing as early as you can and also to take action rather then simply reading about it, researching, and making excuses as to why you have not started yet. 

I am going to be a freshman in college starting in a few weeks, moving from Nashville, where Real Estate prices are far out of my reach, to a smaller town with far lower prices on average. 

I do not have adequate money to put a down payment on a house, even if it were about as cheap as they come, unless I were to sell all of my stocks and use every dollar I have. Even if I followed through on that, I would not have additional money to make repairs, which many of the houses need, or cover potential vacancy or unexpected costs. 

That is where my question comes in. If you were in my situation, would you get creative with financing and start by renovating and flipping? Or just try to make as much money as possible in the next few years and focus on education? Or something entirely different.

I will take a few months or a year to adjust to college life and get to know the area before taking a lot of action but am still curious what more experienced investors would do in my situation. 

[Jamie Jones]

Hi @Bennett Dickerson are you working while in school? If you can qualify, one way to get started in real estate would be to buy a house to live in while in school. If you are still residing in Tennessee, you could look at a THDA loan that would help with down payment assistance (either $6k with no re-payment or 6% of the sales price with repayment). Then, you could get a couple roommates to cover your housing expense while in school, and rent out it out long term after you graduate. By the time you're done with school, you will have started building wealth and have a rental property in a college town under your belt.