What are your opinion on a college degree in real estate ?

[Victor C. Hernandez]

I’m 20 years old turning 21 on March ; HS graduate from class of 2016 in CA . I have a beautiful daughter who’s 4 months old And I just got laid off from my current job I was working at for 2 years as a construction worker, I’m currently taking my time studying and researching more about real estate. One thing that worries me is TIME . It’s now or never and I’m currently enrolling myself at a local community college for a degree in BUSR : Bussiness , Real Estate for my AA with a transfer to a 4 year. At times it worries me because I will be going as a full time student but I also need money now to take care of my daughter. I have lots of crazy thoughts going through my head for the reason that I really care for my future and it has me worried. I have been looking into wholesaling and I was wondering if it would be a great idea to maybe start there first then aim for a higher education in college. Can anyone who’s in the profession of real estate please give me some type of advice or a little back story of how they got through a rough situation like the one I’m in .

[Irene Nash]

Hi Victor,

I'm not a wholesaler but have been a real estate agent for a long time, so if your question includes what kind of higher education will help you be successful in RE as a profession, my personal opinion is that a college degree is not at all necessary and is actually not likely to teach you much that relates to doing the job well. 

I am not anti-higher education, I just think that from a very practical point of view it is probably not what is going to make the difference between success or not, certainly as an agent and very possibly in other areas of real estate investing, especially when there's a lot of info available from hands-on investors on sites like this - so if you have the option to spend your time and money on something that doesn't delay your earning potential for that long, I believe it would be worth looking into. I hope this helps, good luck.

P.S. For what it's worth, I didn't know beans when I started.