22 year old looking to get started

[Kevin Sonday]

I am 22 and currently in trade school to be an electrician. I have 4 more years left of it and 2 years left on my degree from college. I really want to start investing in real estate but I am not sure where to start from. I live by a college town and am interested in looking at houses for others to rent or maybe a duplex. I am still saving as much as I can but I am interested in getting my feet wet.

[Matt Popilek]

I would strongly suggest buying a duplex or four plex. Then you can rent out the other units and you can live for free. Also depending on the college town you could rent the other units as an AirBnB and make more money that renting to college students, and the unit(s) won't get tour up so you will save money on the make ready cost if you rent to college students. You can buy these with an FHA loan with only 3.5% down so the barrier to entry is much lower. Good Luck! By the way you could buy a new one every 6 months and do another FHA loan which would be a great way to build a portfolio of property while you are in college. Once your portfolio gets large enough you could refi the book into a commercial loan. The key is buying the property right with a decent equity position so down the road when you refi you could cash out if you wanted to.