Almost 18, beginning Real Estate Investing Education

[Elias Wiscovitch]

Hello, I am new to BiggerPockets and have been listening to the various podcasts available and going through many blog posts. I’m declaring here and now that I’ll be going into real estate investing as soon as possible, (not full time, will be continuing college education and career in finance). The more I look, the more i see how investors wished they started earlier, and I plan not making that mistake

I plan on saving up cash and learning as much as I can. My crazy goal? Putting a down payment by the end of the year on a rental property

If there’s any general advice, tips, or just encouragement, I thank you in advance

[Brian Adzadi]

@Elias Wiscovitch

Yes many of us wish they could have started earlier in real estate, so to have this mindset even before 18 make you have a tremendous advantage over your peers already. However, being that you just starting out and plan on using leverage (aka mortgage loan), I can more than likely suspect you do not have a credit history.

What I would start doing now ,while you are in school and putting money aside for a down payment,  is to get yourself one credit card. Just ONE. Buy small things with it, a coffee here, a chip there, etc. and by the end of the month, pay the whole balance off in full. This is how you start building a credit history so that the banks can see that you handle credit well.

I can tell you for sure, all that money you saved for a down payment would be futile if you have zero credit history. Now remember, this does not mean you should go hog wild with the credit card. The purpose of the card is to help build up your credit, so only purchase things on it that you already have the money to pay for in cash.

I see that you are in Staten Island, NY. I am pretty sure you already know how hot and expensive the NYC real estate market is. For a young upstart, you going to have a difficult time finding deals to dabble in. What I would suggest for you is to start to look at biggerpockets forums that talk about investing out of state.