CPA or Real Estate Agent, Career life choice

[Ryan Esslinger]

I'm stuck between two life choices: 

1. Become a CPA

2. Become a Real Estate Agent

The complication: I have always wanted to get into real estate investing. My parents own apartments and for the last couple of years I have been networking and educating myself on real estate investing. 

The fear is that by not getting my CPA I will be making a horrible mistake and not be able to recover or live a decent life. 

The fear is if I become a CPA I will always look back and regret never doing what I said I wanted. 

The third option, which seems like it will not work, is the become BOTH a CPA and real estate investor. 

Advice, thoughts, opinions are welcome. If there are any CPA's on the forums ( I know a few must have converted or have experience), I would greatly appreciate it. 

Thanks for you time. 

[William Price]

Hey Ryan,  I'm a CPA in Big 4 and an investor.  As others have said, I think you should do both.

You've already taken all of the classes and are eligible to sit for the exam so my advice would be to suck it up for the next few months and do nothing but study so you pass the exam.  You can do it!!

I would then try to work for a Big 4 firm in tax for 2 years.  If you can't do tax with Big 4, I would go with a smaller regional firm where you'll get exposure to everything.  If you ultimately want to do real estate investing, focus on what you can learn from an accounting firm for the next few years to help you in your investing career.  That's why I say don't do anything but tax at Big 4.  You'll be doing grunt work in assurance so that won't help you. 

In tax, you'll being doing a lot of grunt work as well, but you'll get to see how deals are structured, you'll see some 1120S and 1065 returns and hopefully some real estate businesses.  You'll also probably get some exposure to high net worth individuals with a lot of Schedule Es so you can learn about depreciation, Sec. 179, what deductions they should be taking, etc.  With Big 4, make sure you request to get put into a tax group that does small company returns or individual returns.  

If you go with a regional firm, you'll likely see everything so concentrate on how individuals have structured their S Corps or Partnerships, look at their historical tax returns when you are preparing their current year return.  Look at the losses or gains they are incurring.  Do they have huge losses, but the losses are all from depreciation?  Look at any 1031 exchanges that your clients have done in the past - look at how basis is tracked.  You can learn so much from the history of your clients.  

As others also mentioned, you have instant credibility with your CPA license.  You may gain a mentor on the real estate side by sharing some of your accounting experience.  

Good luck!