Current Junior looking to get into student housing after school

[Brandon Mruk]

Hey BP members.

I just joined the site today after beginning the first few chapters of The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and seeing all of the references to BiggerPockets. I have become interested in student housing after hearing of very profitable "luxury student housing" which has sprung up all around my campus. Some of these cheaply built "luxury" apartments are going for as much as 900-1200$ per month (most of which, I would assume, comes from the parents). I, personally, pay nearly 7 thousand dollars per year with my two other roommates (around 21,000 for a 12 mo lease). In our building that I wouldn't call luxury by any stretch, the eleven other units all pay the same and we also have a liquor store downstairs that also pays rent to the landlord. I guess the point that I'm making is that there has to be quite a bit of money flowing in to the landlord's pocket while he sends off about 10% to the leasing company who deals with all of the "hands-on" work.

My question is, how do I go about beginning a career in real estate investing? I have talked to others (professors, family friends, etc.) who have gone down the student housing road and I have gotten a lot of good advice, although I don't know when/how I should begin?

I have a good four-year internship with a sub-contractor where I'm very likely to get hired on full-time, but I'm not sure that preparing estimates in a cubicle is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have always been very "hands-on" and feel that I would do much better working as my own boss, but I don't want to end up failing in real estate without a secondary source of income to fall back on.

Is there a good way to get a feel for real estate while I'm still in school? I realize that as a college student with little money, no credit, and no real experience, I don't have much to offer anyone. I just have the motivation to learn, willingness to work hard, and a desire to succeed.

Any advice would be great!

(Sorry the post was so long, I just have a lot of questions!)

Brandon