Is 1500 enough to start in real estate?

[Travis Cannon]

Hello everyone. I am 20 years old and am trying to start investing and learning about it now. I graduate from college next year and would like to live below my means and invest. I have 1500 saved up and don’t know what to do with it.

Any suggestions?

[Jonathan Greene]

A lot of people will tell you to go for it, jump in, take that step, but it's not realistic. If you have $1,500 saved and that is all of your savings you can not invest in anything with that, nor would it be worth it. I mean technically you can, but why? What is the rush and what are the risks? Say you buy a no-money down house to house hack and the furnace breaks. How are you paying for that? All real estate investing requires reserves to account for things that come up. 5-10k minimum for any property up front or when something happens, you can't fix it and then the problems get worse. Partnering with that little money won't bring you back enough income or experience to make it worth it. Just learn. Go to local REI events, listen to the BP podcasts with guests between 18-25 years old and see what their journey was. But $1,500 should just be the beginning of a bigger savings plan, by living below your means as you said, so you have more if something goes wrong.