17 year old preparing to invest in real estate when 18.

[Adrian S.]

Hello! I am currently 17 and am looking for some advice or knowledge pertaining to investment strategies. I live in St. Louis MO with my parents currently and will be going to WashU in STL next fall (full ride). I have a part-time job and about $20-23/hr (tipped pay) and work 25-30 hrs a week making about  about 2-2.5k a month. I have no debt, and very few monthly expenses since I still live with my parents. I can save most of my income and have learned to budget pretty well. I have $16k from a car flipping business and am looking to use it to get into the industry. I plan to intentionally and carefully build my credit score as fast as possible as soon as I turn 18. I was wondering what would be the best way to learn as much as possible about the industry, whether its getting my real estate license and working as a realtor or being an assistant in some real estate office. Also I was wondering if any of you had some advice or start up strategies to avoid or investigate. I turn 18 soon, which makes me legally able to do a lot more under my name. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Shawn Parsh]

Adrian,

  You are off to a good start by asking those who have gone before you. I would consume as much information about real estate investing as I could through books, podcast, and others like here on BP. There are many ways to invest in real estate so you will have to find what you enjoy. 

One route may be for you to find a lease option property that needs cosmetic repairs. In your situation maybe you could find one close to WashU that you could live in and rent the extra rooms out to other college students. Work on the property with your cash flow and money from your part time job to increase the value. Then when you have built some equity in the property and established enough credit buy it for the agreed upon price. 

I would also look into real estate investing clubs in your area and start attending their meetings. Most real estate investors are more than willing to help new investors. You can learn a lot about investing in real estate without paying for classes or professional mentor programs. Let me know if I can be of any help.