Investing at a young age

[Nick Broce]

I want to get into realstate investment and I am 22. Unlike many my age, I have a decent credit  (around 730) and about  $14k saved up. I made the goal of buying my first house or complex before I turn 24, and got a job as an apprentice to a general contractor who works on rental homes. I've been working there for 7 months so far and have about a year left to make my goal. I'm able to save nearly $1k per month. 

I've been reading books and articles, but the more I read the more I realize how much I've yet to learn; there's so many different ways to get into it. Given everything I've described, and the chance to start again at my age, what would you do to get started? 

Also, what kind of loan should I go for, and more importantly, where could I find it?

Note: I had a general plan of my first few houses being flips with me as the general contractor, then starting to buy rentals as I could. Thoughts on this? 

[Jim K.]

@Nick Broce

All right, I don't want to get philosophical or weird, but why are you doing it? I didn't want to make money when I was 22. I already had miserable credit, thanks to that unfortunate 9-ball semester sophomore year out in Missouri. Savings? You've got to be kidding.

So how'd you get in the right headspace at 22?

To say that I envy you, of course, would be an understatement. I graduated at the top of my university class and went on to a fully-funded PhD fellowship in the Ivy League. If I had known then what I know now, I would have found the nearest GC after college and begged him on my knees to take me on. Barring a GC, I would have found a master plumber or electrician. I realize this might sound funny, even caricaturish, from your point of view but I am being perfectly serious.