19 year old looking for advice for buying first house

[Joseph Traskaski]

My name is Joseph, and I'm currently a sophomore in college. I want to get into real estate and will most likely pursue house hacking. Would anyone have any advice for me to get started and get off the ground?

[Parker Robertson]

Hey Joseph,

@Tatum Littleton and @Julien Jeannot gave you some fantastic advice. At your age, saving and learning should be the top priority.

I also want to give some anecdotal advice since I started house hacking right out of college like you are hoping to do: friends are the easiest tenants to find but can be the hardest to manage as a landlord.

What I mean by 'friends are hard to manage' is that they will see you as a friend first and a landlord second, simply because they were your friends before you were their landlord. It would help if you were prepared to handle confrontations or difficult conversations with your friends/tenants because it is bound to happen eventually. 

When I first bought my primary residence, I was renting extra rooms to 2 friends from college. One is the model roommate; cleans up after himself, pays rent on time (sometimes early), and, overall, a nice guy. The other was not. He was loud, didn't clean his dishes, and let his girlfriend smoke in the house. When he eventually moved out, I found holes in the wall and deep scratches in the hardwood floor.

As a friend, it was hard for me to confront him about some of his habits because I didn't want to damage our friendship, but after listening to a BiggerPockets episode I realized I needed to treat my house like a business. It was a difficult conversation to have, but in the long run it saved me an enormous headache and his behavior improved.

I don't want to scare you away from house hacking with friends; it is still hands down the best option to get started in real estate. I just wanted to open your eyes to some of the downsides that aren't always addressed in the books, podcasts, and forum posts that inspire people to get into house hacking. Being a landlord includes managing people, which few people have experience doing right out of college, but it is a great way to get that experience fast.

I am still house hacking and will continue to house hack until it doesn't make sense for me and my situation. Feel free to connect if you have any more questions about it.