Advice for a 19 year old investor

[Christian Morris]

Hello, my name is Chrisitan Morris, I'm 19 years old and I would like to get into real estate investing. Now before I ask for advice on how to start out let me breifly tell you a little bit about myself. I just moved down to Huntsville, AL. with my girlfriend from Virginia. When we got down to Huntsville I found a job at a real estate investing company named Southern Capital Investments, essentially finding leads and working the leads up to getting the seller to agree to sell their house,  usually fix n flips or buy and holds. Granted working here helps me tremendously but here's the catch; Any investing I do for personal gain would have to be on my own time, with my own money (and seeing that I just got an apartment, there's around none of that..) off my own lead that I found on my own time. And on top of that I will be getting my real estate license soon, and I know there are certain things you can't do as an agent with buying or selling your own property. So, if you were in my shoes what would you do? How would you start? Or if you did start this young how did you do it? I'd love to hear advice and opinions!

[Ruth Bayang]

@Christian Morris, I wish I knew this stuff when I was 19.
Finding leads and closing deals is a massively valuable skill. I would use that skill to get my own deals. Yes, you'll be working nights and weekends but you're unmarried and (I'm assuming) childless. Now's the time to be killing it.
I'm not an agent but as far as buying/selling your own property, I believe the only thing you need to do is to disclose that you are an agent but you're acting as an individual. I'm sure agents on here will correct me if I'm wrong.

You work at a real estate investing company. Are you networking with people there, aside from your interaction with them in your job? You have access to an amazing resource that most don't. You have a mentor that happens to be your employer. Network, network, network. Let people know what you want to do.  You will find sources of money or anything else you need. Don't stop asking questions. When you find that deal, everything else will fall into place. But you have to start building the relationships now.