Young California Agent/Investor Looking for Advice/Collaboration!

[Tyler Ettner]

Hey Everyone! So thankful to be a part of this amazing community - I have learned so much from Bigger Pockets and will forever be grateful for the wealth of information I've gained from interacting with everyone here :)
However, I am posting here to see if anyone has any thoughts/advice/wants to collaborate - anything would be greatly appreciated!
I am currently completing my real estate licencing coursework and have saved up about 20k from doing vacation rentals in my college town (Santa Barbara, CA). I now have the opportunity to live in South Lake Tahoe in my grandparents home for free (incredibly fortunate to have the place to myself as it is a second home) and am wondering if I should seek out a brokerage here to perform as an agent as I build my wealth to eventually invest. However, most of the homes here could be considered 'luxury' and it seems like a fairly low volume market. I am developing my skills with 3D photography/tours as well as graphic design and digital marketing.
Any ideas on whether I should live for free in Lake Tahoe and work as a real estate agent in a competitive/low volume market or move back down to my college town of Santa Barbara and pay rent while building a real estate career there?
My end goal has always been to find and invest in cash flowing properties using househacking/BRRRR strategies and I am wondering if anyone has any advice for a young professional crafting a path forward in real estate.
Any advice would be incredibly helpful and I would love to connect/collaborate if anyone is interested in vacation rentals!!

[Charlie Cameron]

Welcome @Tyler Ettner!  I love where your head is at already.  Wish I'd been thinking about real estate that early.  But hey, better late than never I suppose!

On one hand, it will be difficult to get financing on rental properties or even your own house hack if you don't have a steady income you can show.  Breaking in to a luxury market might be tough (but I firmly believe that anything is possible).  You'd have to commit and put a lot of effort in but hey, you might be successful!  Worst case, you spend some time learning about being a licensed agent and maybe close some transactions.  If it isn't working you could then pivot to the other plan.

At the same time, if your end goal is investing, you can do that while earning income (AND be a licensed agent for your own deals and helping a few friends and family now and then).  I love the idea of getting a job going, buying your own house hack, and going from there.  Take it from me, you can invest, work full time, AND use your license.  You just can't be a top producing agent AND work full time.  

I don't own any vacation rentals myself just yet, only multifamily, so someone else can pipe up on those.  But I'm looking to nab one soon - I'm in the perfect market for affordable STRs in the FL panhandle.  

Best of luck to you!