Getting Started as a College Student

[Brigham Bailey]

Hi BiggerPockets family! This is my first post so I am very excited and thankful to have the opportunity to pose my questions to such a wide audience.

As a little bit of background information, I am currently a senior at the University of Georgia, and am looking to get involved in real estate investing in the Athens/Metro Atlanta, Georgia area. 

So my question is this; What advice would you give to someone who is in college, has very limited funds (around $3000) and is looking to get involved in the real estate world. Recently, I have been listening to a lot of podcasts, watching a lot of videos, and reading a lot of articles about wholesaling. It sounds very appealing to someone with limited funds such as myself, but there appears to be quite a high barrier to entry (that being competing with other wholesalers who already have very effective systems for finding distressed sellers).

I was wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks that someone in my unique position could use to help me get started. Also, I am extremely interested in networking with people in my area, and would love to hear from any local investors. Thanks in advance for your responses. 

[Anthony Dooley]

@Brigham Bailey Welcome to the BP forums. I am straight to the point, so don't take it personally. You should focus on finishing school and building a career in your field of study, assuming it is a good field. You can invest using your new income until you become financially free. If you become a real estate investor instead, you would have basically wasted four years and tens of thousands of dollars on an education that you didn't need. You will need to start a new education on how to find, rehab, market, and manage real estate. Investing requires education, but not the institutional education that you have been doing. Starting out for you is the same as anyone else starting out. A steep learning curve and some mistakes will make you an overnight success in about 5-10 years.