Dropped Out of College

[Jalen Chanthaboury]

Greetings BP,

So I’m 19 years old, from the Chicagoland area and I’ve decided to drop out of community college couple of weeks ago. I realized that a traditional education wasn’t for me and it would hold me back from achieving my dreams.

I am now educating myself on real estate investing everyday and pursuing entrepreneurship full time. I currently run an e-commerce store that has been profitable from the jump (looking to build more) and I’ve got one wholesale deal under my belt.

My goals right now are to own a few cash flowing rental properties and complete a couple of fix and flips to raise capital. I am looking to build long-term wealth through real estate.

I CURRENTLY need help/advice on:

-Raising capital for deals

-Learning the art of acquiring properties with OPM

-An efficient way to find great deals

-Looking for potential investors with the funds to partner up for future deals (Ex. I find the deal and I present it to an investor looking to split profits if it makes sense)

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Joseph Konney]

In my opinion, the study material for becoming an agent is not specifically useful for investing. There are specific designations you can get above and beyond your license which may help. I would say the licensing coursework is focused on lingo and legality around real estate. You surely don't need to be an agent to be an investor. Your association dues as an agent may come with a lot of tools, data, and resources to empower you to be a better investor. However, a lot of those tools are available without a license as well.

Originally posted by @Jalen Chanthaboury:

@Jalen Chanthaboury

I am also looking to work towards getting my realtor’s license in my state of Illinois since they changed the age requirement to 18. I feel like this would help open up more doors for me and help provide more opportunity instead of “starting from scratch”. What do y’all think?

[Jalen Chanthaboury]

You are the man. I enjoyed reading your comment. I appreciate you for taking the time to do that. Let's connect sometime.

[Luan Oliveira]

@Jalen Chanthaboury

If you find the deal, the money will come. At most real estate meetups you'll find entry of people willing to partner on a great deal. So just get out there and start looking!

[Linda D.]

Completing college shows intellect curiosity and drive. While there you will learn how to learn, how to come to grips with failure and turn it around, how to lead - and how to follow- others. You will became an adult in an environment where people actually care how you turn out.

Why not work in real estate and go to school at the same time it go somewhere where you can learn the skills you may need like real estate finance, real estate law, what have you? Your investors are likely to be white collar people. Better to be their social equals. No doctor is going to invest with a college dropout under normal circumstances. As a college dropout the only place you will be meeting a doctor is as his patient.

Most billionaires have degrees and social skills, Mark Zuckerberg excepted.

[Linda D.]

Kudos to you for your early interest in real estate and the willingness to get out there and do something. Just don’t take a short cut you will regret later. College is harder to do once you have responsibilities.

[Alex G.]

An alternative to traditional education is the school of hard knocks.  Get ready to roll with the punches.

[Sean Maroni]

I also dropped out of college a few years ago. I see that you've already jumped ship, but I'll throw in a few things to consider.

There is nothing wrong with taking the self-directed path. But, it works best for folks that are humble and self-aware. Not saying you're not, but I am saying that I myself could have used a big dose of both back when I quit. I was over-confident in my abilities to become a successful startup founder, and not self-aware enough to notice how much I needed to learn in order to do that. While it is finally working out for me, it look 5 years to get there (not the 12 months I was hoping for).

Dropping out means that you're closing the door to a Plan B. Not having a degree as a fallback (when hard times hit) can be motivating, because it forces you forward since forward is your only chance. But, if you are humble and self-aware, you can get to where you want to be through considered actions and momentum building.

I'd imagine that's a much less stressful way to get to the place one wants.

Just some food for thought, do what works for you. 

[Randy Gutierrez]

@Joe Splitrock

I agree, it irritates me when people use 1 or 2 people on this planet as an example and extrapolate that idea to justify their actions and think it will work for them and the other 7 billion people.