how to get involved while in school

[Nick Weiss]

Hey everyone, so a little backstory... my brother just bought his first rental, growing up my dad owned a rental property as well. We spent and still do spend a lot of time there so I'm familiar with the hands on aspect. I'm just curious on how I can get involved into real estate early, like this coming school year. Looking for some advice, anything will help! Thanks.

[Sam Valme]

Hey @Nick Weiss! Getting started early is always a great decision. But the hardest part as I'm sure you're seeing is "How can I add value?". At the end of the day, you'll have to answer that question before you can get started. I'm going to make some assumptions here and say that being a capital investor might not be possible for you at this point. Here are a couple of things to consider that tend to involve less money up front:

#1 Find Deals- Scout Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin. Drive for Dollars. Make phone calls. Send Letters. Then use tools like the BP calculator (biggerpockers.com/analysis) to determine if they're actually a good deal. The pre-made calcs are good, but you can really make a similar calc in excel if you don't want to front the money for the pro membership. I'd recommend it if possible! Then find an investor and present them with the deal. Talk with them before hand to get their requirements so you can narrow your search.

#2 Get Your License (Assuming you're 18)- This does take a bit of money up front and time. It can assist with Tip #1 because you'll have full access to the MLS. Even more, now you can become an asset to other investors because you can set up even more specific searches on the MLS and have them send directly to investors. If they're interested you can get access to the home and do a walk through on their behalf prior to the purchase. If they buy, you get commission.

After working with a couple investors, maybe you find one who does more deals then the others. See if perhaps you could enter a partnership with that person where you forgo a larger commission and take a percentage of the deal. 10% of a 100,000 home's equity and 25% of the rental income beats a $2,000 one time check. You'd have to work with your broker to make sure that commission piece is kosher. But it can be done. This may also be a good part time job while in school!

#3 Save and Partner - I'm hesitant to recommend this because you clearly said you're in school. But assuming you do have a job and can lower monthly expenses to build up some capital. Even if you could collect 5-10K (I know thats a lot :(  ) you could advertise you're interesting in partnering with an experienced investors who is willing to take on a co-investor. See if they'd be willing to sit down with you in the afternoons or weekends and explain their business processes as well.