New, Young Real Estate Investor

[Noe Guzman]

I am a 17 year old looking to begin my journey in the world of real estate. Where do I start? I am already reading books such as, Rich Dad Poor dad, The Secret, and Think and Grow rich. I am listening to podcasts and watching mentors on youtube. I have been looking in to wholesaling real estate but I am aware that I have to be 18 to do so. What should I do?

[Christopher Parsons]

@Noe Guzman I would start by asking yourself what you want to do. No matter what, you'll either have to pay in time or money. Does that mean you'll get a decent or high paying job to take and invest in passive income? Would you rather learn the ropes of the investor world and create a step up type plan?

The way I've decided to start is to make my money by learning the entire process while getting paid (and I would give anything to go back in time, smack myself in the face, and given my prior self my current gameplan). So what that means to me is I want to get real efficient at BRRRRs for passive income and doing flips for active income. Well, with someone with little to no money, you can't really flip too efficiently, so I'm going to start with the beginning of any deal, and thats finding the deals. So, I am wholesaling locally to not just get paid from my wholesale deals, but to also learn the most efficient ways to find deals myself. Then, as I grow my capital, I can start to look at doing the occasional flip to increase that capital. That way too, you can pull from your own wholesale deals rather than paying someone else for the deal they found (nothing wrong with that if you have the money). From there, I'll basically move to a point where I can look at any deal I have on my plate and choose what I want to do with it. Do I make quick money and wholesale? Is there enough room to make a big profit if I flip? Am I in a good enough area and can rehab enough equity into the deal to BRRRR it?

Now, I'm a little lucky in that my wife has an awesome job that pays decent in Seattle, which means her income can go a long way in the Midwest, so we are already starting BRRRRs out of state. Part of our goal is to retire her in 3 to 5 years, so I am taking the time and found a mentor to start off in wholesaling locally so that I can boost our buying power. I am doing the same step up plan now as I would've done if I had this knowledge when I was 17/18. Wholesale to get good at finding deals, flip to get good at rehabs and increase capital, BRRRRs to build long term wealth and eventual financial freedom before I'm too old to travel the world and do what I want to do with my family.

Oh, and don't forget to take advantage of house hacking while you're still young. We plan to do that as well, but we have a 18 month old daughter and we have a little boy on the way. We'll have to do multi-family style house hacking. Listen to episode 392 of BP Podcast to get an awesome idea for a room by room house hack.