18 Year Old from Portland Oregon

[Gage Halverson]

Hello everyone on BiggerPockets, my name is Gage Halverson and I am from Portland Oregon. I have very little experience with Real Estate investing and I have come here to learn more about how I can get a head start in earning passive income. I stumbled upon BiggerPockets while I was researching different careers that line up with my interests:

• Planning
• Business and Business Management
• Interacting with people
• System design
• Building and Construction
• Design and visual production
• Not having a traditional full time desk job
• Passive income that would give me the freedom to work another job that I enjoyed but didn't make that much money

Since I was young I knew that I wanted to do something that related to engineering, and I have always had a passion for building, designing and working with my hands. I just graduated High School in June and I am currently taking a gap year to travel the world with a community service, leadership and preforming arts organization called Up with People. I come from a a family that has gone through a lot financially, including my dad going back to school to become a Naturopathic Doctor after being a teacher for 15 years, and my mom going through Leukemia a couple years ago (she is healthy and doing much better now).

Due to financial circumstances I had to raise a majority of the money to be able to go on this incredible trip, I worked full time construction with a local construction company along with many other things. When I was younger my family built a 32 by 32 foot cabin in Montana and I basically grew up learning and helping with almost every aspect of construction. Having these skills and basic knowledge was very helpful for working construction this last summer and I believe it will help me achieve my goal of designing and building my personal home in the future. 

This brings me to the reason I want to pursue Real Estate investing for passive income or a full time job, I am not 100% sure what I want to do yet. My original goal after my trip was to go to Montana State University for mechanical engineering with some sort of business minor. After only two and a half months of traveling from city to city and meeting new people everyday, I have realized that I have no desire to sit behind a computer for hours and hours each and everyday designing and engineering the right door handle for cars. I want to be working with people and I want to do something with more freedom and overall I want to be working for myself. Yes I know not all engineering jobs are the same but I am starting to think its not the best fit for me. I am still planning on going to college when I get back, but I am unsure what my focus will be.

After reading the BiggerPockets Ultimate Beginners Guide and listening to multiple podcasts I am starting believe that earning a passive income through Real Estate investing is something I would enjoy and I would be successful. As of right now I am extremely interesting in using the buy and hold strategy. I also want to learn more about house hacking and the benefits of small multifamily properties.

I am sorry that this was so long and I basically wrote my life story, but I am super excited to learn more and explore this field. Thank you so much for reading and listening to my story! I just have a few quick questions:

1. Going into college how should I approach investing with very little money? Is house hacking a smart move or should I be looking into traditional buy and hold?
2. What are things I can do to present myself in a professional way that will make sure I am taken  serious at such a young age? (Granted I probably won't be making my first deal until I am 19 or 20)
3. Any other advice for someone starting off so young?

[Chris Gibbs]

Welcome to biggerpockets!  It sounds like you are asking the right questions.  Since you cannot get financing of your own.  I would recommend trying to find someone that is doing buy and hold in the area and offer to help them.  The same way you learned while building the cabin you can learn from seasoned investors while you are going through college.  At the very least you can try to get a part time job at a property management company.  

How you present yourself in a professional manner all comes down to doing your research and expanding your knowledge in the field you wish to talk about.  

If you approach someone you want to work with, and you know the lingo and can follow the conversation of real estate then you will be taken more seriously with every sentence.  In real estate you need to build relationships and ask educated questions in order to eventually have the opportunity to work with professionals in the business.

I recommend reading and listening to the podcast to learn as much as you can.  And keep an eye out for meet ups in the Portland area (allthough most of them are at bars :P).  Keep an eye out for people you can work with and start building those relationships now so that when you are ready for your first deal you will have help.