Real Estate Agent While In College

[Jacob Willett]

Hello BP Community,

As a bit of background: I am currently 20 years old in my 3rd year of college. I have been learning and researching for a few months now and I have determined I would like to get into a house-hack before I finish school. I am in a co-op program which means I rotate between classes and in-field work each semester. My current roadblock is financing, both in terms of loan approval due to my inconsistent income and just lack of capital. Coming out of my current co-op rotation I will be going back to classes during the fall and I will have much more free time on my hands to work towards building some more capital. I had considered pushing more time into my resale business, tutoring, or looking for a part-time job but I feel like there is a more productive application of my time.

My two main ideas are:

1. 1.) Find a real estate investor/ agent to work for in my spare time
   1. Pros: Gain experience in real estate field, network, possibly earn capital
   2. Cons: Difficult to find someone who will be willing to work with me

1. 2.) Get my real estate license and work part time as an agent. My co-worker does this and his brokerage is known for training new agents so I was going to check out their programs.
   1. Pros: Gain experience in real estate buying/selling, earn money, network, obtain real estate license
   2. Cons: I have to pay for training, etc.. so I risk losing money if I cant do any deals

I would love to hear what you guys think about these two options, do they sound like something I could realistically do?. I am really interested in trying to kill two birds with one stone this semester by earning money and getting involved with real estate in any way possible so if you have any other suggestions please let me know!

[Jonathan Greene]

If I got my license in college, I would make my niche finding college rentals and talk to all of the landlords who own college rentals. People like to scoff at rentals for agents, but they are perfect for college students because there are no inspections or closing times, they just pay and move in.

I like the idea of finding an REI mentor, but it's not as easy as most think. Getting your license will give you good education. If you stay with the clients and go from college renter to graduated renter to homebuyer, you have a pipeline. You could also upgrade and see if you could get a list of adjunct faculty coming in each year and help them find a nine-month rental and they are "better" renters for landlords than students, even though students have cosigners.