Straight out of College

[Juan Carlos Castillo]

I made a lot of bad decisions in college,  I started partying, racking up loans (even though I had full scholarships) and somehow still managed to max out two credit cards. It's been a year since I graduated college, and I've now worked down $20k of debt (10k/30k in student loans and 10k/20k in car loan), and also got my credit score back up from 500 to 700 after missing three months of payments on two cards in college. What a mess right?

I'm trying to get my finances in order and have always been interested in real estate, I even went to school for civil engineering (my dream is to design, build and rent my own apartment building). I just applied for my first FHA loan which my realtor said should have been an easy approval, but got denied because of the missed credit card payments on my report 2 years ago. I'm just looking for some general advice on how I should set myself up. I want to jump in, possibly into a fix and flip, but i feel it would be even harder to get that approved through a bank than the FHA loan I just got denied for, would it be completely idiotic to try to get a private lender/hard money loan for a fix and flip?

[Ed Emmons]

 It might be a good idea to team up with a local investor and do one together since you’re just starting out. Also filling out your profile so others will know what your goals are and exactly what you’re looking for so that possible investor partners will know that you’ve done a little homework on your own. Also take the time to read, listen to podcasts, etc. and educate yourself as much as possible.