Investing/Life Advice Needed

[Michael Barger]

Hello, This is my first post on this site and I really need some advice from people that are in the real estate investing life now. I'm 18 and live in Cincinnati Ohio. I am just about to finish my first semester in college at Ohio State University and am beginning to schedule for the 2nd and I need advice because I feel that I've come to a very large crossroads in my life right now.

To get straight to the point I've only ever seen college and a career afterwards as an option, but I've always been passionate about real estate and planned to do it after college by slowly saving money and then trying to invest while having a full time job. My father passed away a couple years ago from cancer and has left me over 250k. My first thought is that I can use this money to have no debt after college and have money afterwards to start a life. But also since receiving this money I've thought how I could educate myself financially and use this blessing and build a life in real estate and build wealth from it.

Right now all of my classes for college are online so I do not pay room and board or meal plans. On top of that my mother does not work and we live off of a percentage of my income from a part time job and disability she gets because she does not work from nerve damage she has from breast cancer when I was younger. Because her disability does not count as income I get a good amount of financial aid for college, this semester was only $445 without room/board and meal plans and I was able to pay out of pocket. I already know that this next semester will also be still online, but I'm not sure about next year and will probably move to Columbus and into college, adding those room and board expenses.

With that information I have had two ideas.

1) I can stay in college and get my degree (Business and Finance) and over this next semester/summer buy in full or leverage my money and put a downpayment on a small 2beds/1bathroom home that is in need of rehab and rent it out after it is fixed up. But also before I head to Ohio State instead of living on campus and paying more in room/board and other expenses. I find something like a duplex/triplex/4-plex in Columbus and put a downpayment on it and house hack while I take classes for college, while also having some cash flow coming from the small home in Cincinnati. I would also be using the money left to me to pay my college tuition and other fees that aren't room/board and meal plans. While in college I continue with real estate investing and find homes in Columbus or back in Cincinnati where I plan to move back to after college, but this will be a much slower process in order to not completely overwhelm myself with college and real estate.

2) I finish this year out, or drop out of college and start real estate investing as a full time job now. I still plan to follow through with finding a single family home and also house hacking a duplex or larger, but it would be in Cincinnati and not in Columbus. Instead of continuing through college, I will work and also leverage my money carefully to slowly build wealth with a real estate portfolio.

Either way I know I want to build a life in real estate, no matter a degree or not. My mother owned two duplexes when she was younger, but had to sell them as she had too much in life going on. She has shown me and plans to help me through my first couple homes and the processes of creating an LLC, finding reliable contractors, finding good deals, and being smart and safe.

I know the money I have is a blessing and I need to be smart with it, but I know that it takes risks to be successful. It would be a GREAT help if I could get some third party prospective from others that have lives in this field. I know there is also a lot more that goes into real estate investing that what I've said here and that I am still young and have just barely cracked the tip on what I need to learn about this world of real estate investing. I know it will be very challenging, but I plan to grind to my dreams no matter the path I take.

PS) My mother also has gotten money, but plans to use it for her retirement and wants to travel once I'm settled. I just did not want you, the reader to get the impression I was going to leave my mother with nothing.

Thank you for any advice and ideas you may have and your time given. 

[Craig Anderson]

I would read, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" then read "How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide" by Brandon Turner.  These books help you get focused, learn more about investing, and create a great mindset.

[Brandon Goldsmith]

At the end of the day, you have options, having options in life will always be greater than having no choice, which you seem to already realize. As far as the question of what to do, it is will ultimately have to be your decision for the right reasons and only reasons that will be for your future. Going to college or to not will continue to be the ongoing debate as it has been. 

I graduated from Ohio State (Fisher) last May during the pandemic. I was in between going the corporate route and finishing up my real estate license to just pursue that and working with investors. I saw a lot of my friends get their jobs pushed back or offers revoked so it made the decision easy for me that a W2 job isn't as safe as it might seem. I have been working as a real estate ever since mostly focused on investors and have been loving it. I am getting ready to house hack a multifamily property here soon and will have started getting things ready for a rehab for the second property. Luckily both markets you have thought about are good options. Hopefully, this helps, and best of luck to you. @Michael Barger

[David Robinson]

Welcome to BP! Richest Man in Babylon is a good book too that can help. I personally like your first option with the house hack, and leveraging your money. Using the college as a tool, you could definitely do both real estate investing and school. Use the resources of the school to help you grow in all areas of real estate investing. 

[Arlen Chou]

@Michael Barger it sounds like you already have it all figured out, but you are looking for validation to drop out of school. We have all been indoctrinated with the idea that a college degree is THE way to a successful future. That might have been true decades ago, but the reality of your chosen path is that everything you need to be successful in REI exists on the internet.

College is required if you want to go into a specialized field that requires "certification". To be a doctor you have to be certified. To be a lawyer you have to be certified. There is nothing that says to be successful in business or more specifically in REI that you have to be certified. A business degree does not really mean that a person knows what the hell they are doing...

If a person wants to go out and become an employee a degree is helpful. This is only because there are very few ways for companies to weed out individual applicants, so they rely on the antiquated notion that a college degree is an indicator of professionalism or potential. Another potential benefit of a degree would be access to a strong alumni association. This can be very helpful. However, I believe that this is only the case for top-ranked schools. This might be an elitist view, but I think it is the reality of the market place.

Classes on finance and account could be helpful. But you can learn all of that on your own too. 4 years is a long time to be on the sidelines getting a piece of paper that probably is not useful. Most of the real estate investors I know do not have a degree in anything that relates to real estate. The few that use their degrees in REI all went to school for finance/accounting and they run their own books.

Personally, I don't use my liberal arts degree in either my tech-based job/company or in my real estate investing. The college experience was great and I learned a lot about personal interaction and the world outside of the little town I grew up in, but that was literally back in the days of the dial-up modem...

I have an 18-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son and I have told them the same thing I have said here. You can accomplish a TON of stuff in the same 4 year period if you are willing to drive yourself and be focused. But you have to make that commitment and go into it that knowing you will miss out on the "college experience". Unless college is a stepping stone to a specialized degree, it really is just a 4-year vacation/place to hide from the real world.

Very simply put; college WAS the only place to get knowledge, and knowledge was power. In the 21st century, almost all the knowledge of humanity is in the palm of your hand (cell phone). Moving forward, success is not going to be knowledge-based, because everybody has access to the same knowledge. Success will come from experience and self-motivation.

Like I eluded to earlier, I think you already know the answer... Good luck to you on whatever path you decide to travel. 

[Andrew Powers]

@Michael Barger I agree with the above posts. 

The main thing I thought of when reading your post is "be patient". You have time (and money) to cover yourself. Don't put the arbitrary pressure of "I need to figure this out now". I understand you are choosing classes and you want to do things as efficiently as possible, but be patient and know that life things time and trial & error! If you need more time to think or dabble in real estate, you can either sign up for classes and think over the next semester (you have money to do this), or take a semester break. 

From a macro perspective, 4 years in college isn't alot of time, you can get great experiences / knowledge, and your degree is applicable to real estate itself. BUT most things are available online to learn, unless there's some new emerging field that only can be learned in college.

Being your age, you have the luxury of time to figure out and hone in on what you want to do. Be a sponge to learn as much as possible and make sure you give things an honest chance to determine if you like it or not. Every path has it's difficulty, it's just choosing what difficulty you can and want to go through. Write it out on paper to keep things clear in your mind.

[Remington Lyman]

Originally posted by @Michael Barger:

Hello, This is my first post on this site and I really need some advice from people that are in the real estate investing life now. I'm 18 and live in Cincinnati Ohio. I am just about to finish my first semester in college at Ohio State University and am beginning to schedule for the 2nd and I need advice because I feel that I've come to a very large crossroads in my life right now.

To get straight to the point I've only ever seen college and a career afterwards as an option, but I've always been passionate about real estate and planned to do it after college by slowly saving money and then trying to invest while having a full time job. My father passed away a couple years ago from cancer and has left me over 250k. My first thought is that I can use this money to have no debt after college and have money afterwards to start a life. But also since receiving this money I've thought how I could educate myself financially and use this blessing and build a life in real estate and build wealth from it.

Right now all of my classes for college are online so I do not pay room and board or meal plans. On top of that my mother does not work and we live off of a percentage of my income from a part time job and disability she gets because she does not work from nerve damage she has from breast cancer when I was younger. Because her disability does not count as income I get a good amount of financial aid for college, this semester was only $445 without room/board and meal plans and I was able to pay out of pocket. I already know that this next semester will also be still online, but I'm not sure about next year and will probably move to Columbus and into college, adding those room and board expenses.

With that information I have had two ideas.

1) I can stay in college and get my degree (Business and Finance) and over this next semester/summer buy in full or leverage my money and put a downpayment on a small 2beds/1bathroom home that is in need of rehab and rent it out after it is fixed up. But also before I head to Ohio State instead of living on campus and paying more in room/board and other expenses. I find something like a duplex/triplex/4-plex in Columbus and put a downpayment on it and house hack while I take classes for college, while also having some cash flow coming from the small home in Cincinnati. I would also be using the money left to me to pay my college tuition and other fees that aren't room/board and meal plans. While in college I continue with real estate investing and find homes in Columbus or back in Cincinnati where I plan to move back to after college, but this will be a much slower process in order to not completely overwhelm myself with college and real estate.

2) I finish this year out, or drop out of college and start real estate investing as a full time job now. I still plan to follow through with finding a single family home and also house hacking a duplex or larger, but it would be in Cincinnati and not in Columbus. Instead of continuing through college, I will work and also leverage my money carefully to slowly build wealth with a real estate portfolio.

Either way I know I want to build a life in real estate, no matter a degree or not. My mother owned two duplexes when she was younger, but had to sell them as she had too much in life going on. She has shown me and plans to help me through my first couple homes and the processes of creating an LLC, finding reliable contractors, finding good deals, and being smart and safe.

I know the money I have is a blessing and I need to be smart with it, but I know that it takes risks to be successful. It would be a GREAT help if I could get some third party prospective from others that have lives in this field. I know there is also a lot more that goes into real estate investing that what I've said here and that I am still young and have just barely cracked the tip on what I need to learn about this world of real estate investing. I know it will be very challenging, but I plan to grind to my dreams no matter the path I take.

PS) My mother also has gotten money, but plans to use it for her retirement and wants to travel once I'm settled. I just did not want you, the reader to get the impression I was going to leave my mother with nothing.

Thank you for any advice and ideas you may have and your time given. 

 If I were you I would stay in school and get your degree. I would simultaneously get your real estate sales license and start brokering deals on the side. That is what some of my co-workers are doing here in Columbus, Ohio.