Where should I even begin?

[Account Closed]

Hi everyone! 

I'm 20 turning 21 soon and my goal in life is to be financially successful within the next few years. I know it doesn't happen overnight and I am willing to put in the work it takes to be financially successful. I didn't go to college because I wanted to start my own businesses. I worked for one of my family members 2 years ago and I learned a lot from them. They are not in Real Estate. 

     I currently own and operate a construction company which I started last year. This company was started for my dad so he could stop working for someone else and actually make a decent living instead of paycheck to paycheck. He had his own company 4 years ago but due to other issues, we had to sell the equipment and truck.

    I don't like working construction. My two goals in terms of business are to start my own trucking company and build a real estate portfolio. I will be doing both this year. I have the knowledge and experience in trucking and I love driving so I think this is a good opportunity for me to take to become a successful fleet owner. In terms of Real Estate, my goal is to become a successful investor and possibly a developer.

     I want to start the trucking company, grow it, while also building a real estate portfolio. I know I can handle both but getting started is the hard part. In the end, with both trucking and real estate, my goal is to be financially successful and very well off in terms of wealth. 

     Should I start trucking first or real estate? I don't want to delay real estate while growing the trucking company and then the good deals are gone.

I have been considering getting a Real Estate agent license but many people I spoke to online, said not to since there's no point if I'm not going to actively look to represent buyers and sellers, which in reality I'm not. I wanted to get the license so I can get access to MLS, I save on commission, and after 2 years of active license, I can apply for a brokers license. If I choose this route, I would want to do an all in one real estate company, where I do property management, investing, developments, sales/leasing.

     As you can see, my mind is all over the place in terms of choosing what to do. I'm 100% going to do both trucking and real estate. But I just can't decide which field I should put 100% effort in FIRST. Please share your thoughts and advice on what I should do.
  
     
 

[Rick Novotny]

I agree with @Taylor L.

Definitely search for ways for your business to be as passive as possible.

When I started buying properties, I used a management company right from the beginning for two reasons. 1) I knew I didn't want to deal with tenants and fixing toilets. 2) I was living in Denver and buying in Kansas City.

While using a management company might not be the best cashflow from the start, it allows you to focus on other things. For example, I am running my rental business while working a full-time IT career and a full-time real estate agent career. The management company takes care of all of the day-to-day operations. The only things I have to do is look at it from a 10,000 ft. view, if you will. And approve certain repairs via email if they are over the repair budget for the managers.

One thing to keep in mind is that you probably aren't going to be able to dive into real estate at an extremely fast rate. I might be wrong here, but most people don't have 100's of thousands of dollars to throw at properties at such a young age. It starts kind of slow with 1 property at a time but it will start to snowball eventually. You have to be patient. I get eager all the time expecting my business to blow up, but I have to pull myself back. Keep it slow and methodical (at least at first).

Honestly, I think you can do both but you're going to need to keep your finances clean. Get rid of all of your personal expenses if you have any and live as cheaply as possible. You're young so you have that going for you. Keep living "like a college student". I STILL do this and I'm 32 years old with 2 careers and 21 doors under my belt. These businesses are going to start to have huge expenses and you'll need to be prepared for anything.

I hope the best of luck to you!

If you have any questions feel free to send me a message.