18 without money and trying to start

[Ethan Adley Jarrett]

Hi I’m 18 in a small town in Texas trying to get into real estate. I would like some advice on how to get a start and what a good approach is with barely any money. I’ve done a little research on house hacking and I think that might be a path for me but I have no idea how to start and how to get a contract setup. Any advice would be very helpful and I would greatly appreciate it.

[Bruce Lynn]

Do things within the industry to build cash.   Even with no skill or very little skill you can do trashouts, cleanups, yard work.  Maybe you have enough experience or skill to do handyman work too...like painting, unclogging drains, replacing toilets, caulking, etc.  Go find the PMs in town and offer your services.  Even just gopher/task rabbit type services might help them....putting out signs, putting on lockboxes, changing out locks.

I think every apartment complex today is looking for maintenance people.  See if you can trade rent for work.   Or see if you can work in the office Saturdays and Sundays leasing.

Go hustle...build cash....work a regular day job and do all this after your main job and weekends.   Then you will run into opportunities...just being around the business.

If you are in a tiny town, go find all the vacant houses, find the owners.  Offer to help them fix with free labor if you can live in the house for free while you fix it.  Make them pay for the materials and you offer free labor.  Rent a room to a friend while you're doing the work to get it ready to sell.  Then repeat every six months as the houses sell.  Bank what you would have paid in rent...$600-$800-$1000/month saved...and after a year you have $12,000 or so saved....then instead of renting free and fixing, you make offers....$5000 down and owner finance the rest....now that house is yours, you fix and rent after a year, refinance and do it again...do this for 10 years and you have 10 houses.

If you are in a tiny town....you should know every vacant house in town...and you are calling those owners every month asking if you could rent or fix their property...and writing them hand written cards and notes.

Best wishes for your success.  YOU can be a real estate mogul in a small town.