19 year old looking to get into real estate

[Jack Budd]

I am a 19 year old going into my sophomore year of college as a business major (general right now but might narrow down to finance or something). As a result of scholarships I will have no college debt to pay off. I have a dream of buying and flipping houses in the near future and investing in real estate property and would like to househack. I currently have a summer job where I have saved just over $6000 where I have slowly started injecting into various etfs. I plan to withdraw at least some of this money in the near future to help me in real estate. I figured I would try to accumulate at least some interest rather than just let it sit in my bank account for the next few years. My uncle is a successful real estate flipper and investor and I plan to apprentice for him possibly next summer offering him free labor and whatever else in exchange for a better understanding of the business. I have started listening to bigger pockets podcast and reading books to “invest in myself.” I would love to hear any feedback people can give me for my plan.

[Dave G.]

@Jack Budd Congrats on being financially responsible with your college expenses and pursuing a degree that the market will value vs a stupid history or English major. Speaking of your major, I would recommend Finance or Supply Chain. I am a program manager for a large aerospace company and we are constantly looking for good finance majors and always short good supply chain folks. Every business needs finance people, and almost every business has a supply chain that needs to be managed. 

In terms of your real estate investment plan, sounds pretty good to me. Do the apprenticeship and be a sponge, learn every last thing you can from your uncle. We all should be so lucky to have a close successful relative that could have mentored us at a young age. Don't rush the learning process, listen to your uncle's dos and donts. I think long term, you'll want to be a buy/hold investor. I know of no persons on the Forbes 400 list that made their billions flipping homes. Use that as your day job and accumulate rentals over time. You might want to do the BRRRR method which there is lots info described on this site.

You have not indicated what state you're in. I would highly suggest that as you graduate you consider moving to a business-friendly state that has a net in-flow of resident from a solid local economy and job growth. Do this before you get married and have kids etc since it will be hard to move later with that kind of baggage. My undergrad diploma ink was still wet when I bugged out leaving Chicago for AZ many years ago. I did it for other reasons than I list above, but am lucky that AZ has the booming job market and population in-flow driving my property values and rents at nation-leading growth rates. Choose a place like this to invest. Places not to invest are obvious, just look at the news, state financial health, tax rates and leadership. Top 3 places to avoid IMO, Califorinia, New York and Illinois. There are more but those places are cesspools. And with COVID driving a nation-wide experiment that has essentially proved the effectiveness of telecommuting / working remotely, you'll see a reduced demand in expensive and population-dense locations as many professionals will no longer be anchored to where their employer's office building is. 

Good luck in your pursuits.