All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

 I know it can seem hard, but the truth is you need to try a lot harder. Call 20 real estate professionals in your town and tell them you're young, excited, and will work for cheap if you can learn the business. I mean developers, agents, flippers, landlords, property management, brokers, etc. 

Get a secured credit card through your bank (your banker can explain more about this to you) -- anyone can get this because the money on the card is already in your account. To further build your credit, I would talk to your parents about adding your name to a household bill that is ALWAYS paid on time.

You're in great shape, truthfully, because you're young. Learn everything.

Are you considering buying the duplex then moving into one side? A lot of people have started that way. What about wholesaling to start building capital for yourself?

Once you start attending REIA's, you could ask a fix and flipper if you could shadow him or her on one of their flips so you could learn how to do some rehab skills. Offer to clean up their job sites or buy them lunch a few times. After awhile, ask if you could help in the process. Sometimes learning by doing is the best way to do it.

Also, if you end up becoming skilled on doing some certain things , ie carpet, tile, or hanging cabinets, you could look on Craigslist for Contractors looking for some help.  

Some Contractors will hire you as a parts runner or site clean up person, and then later promote you to be a framer or something else.  If you work for a Contractor, you will end up learning a lot about construction and it will help you when you start doing your own fix and flips.

If you truly are not handy, and if you have a dependable vehicle, look into being a pizza delivery driver in the evenings.  They earn between $10-18 or more in most regions, and this would keep your days free to do other things.   Do put money aside for vehicle maintenance, as delivering pizzas will wear out your car.  

Troll Craigslist for jobs.  I have found many unconventional jobs on them....even drove a guy around in his truck as he lost his license due to his 3rd DUI.   Also, look under the Gig section.  Some people just need a strong younger person to help move or for some other reason. 

Learn to be handy man. It will save you a ton of money down the road. Especially when trying to start a rental empire. 

Christian:

A number of them are free. Our local REIA meetings are $75 for the entire year. WELL worth the price. An Unbelievable amount of information and contacts.

Good luck to you and keep us posted on your progress.

@Account Closed 

I bought my first house for $2,900.00. Even two weeks ago I paid $2,500.00 for one. Go find a cheap house. Buy it, fix it, rent or sell it.

Hi Cristian:

Welcome to real estate investing! You're never too young or too broke to start - and in 10 years, I promise, you'll be so glad you did!

The best way to start out is to get some education - which doesn't have to cost much at all. Reading here is great. Another very important source of TONS of information is to search for any and all investment meetings in your area. ATTEND them! You can find REIA meetings (real estate investors association) in your area by going to this site: www.NationalREIA.com

Also, Google for meetings, check out meetup.com, and look for landlord association meetings.

From these groups, you will learn the vocabulary, areas around you that are best for investing, vendors to use (attorneys, title companies, etc.), local ordinances and laws, and who the players are in your area that may be willing to take you under their wing while you learn.

This is a people business and the more people you know in your area who are doing what you want to do, the shorter your learning curve will be. Don't get stopped, keep learning and go for it!

Here's wishing you tremendous real estate investing success!

If you want to invest in real estate, the first thing you need to do is get a better job. Minimum wage is not gonna get you where you want to go. Decide which part of real estate you want to be in, and start calling everyone in your area who does that, asking them for a job. Even if you stay minimum wage you'll be learning from someone who's doing it in your market. 

Beyond that, make sure your credit score is in good shape; if it isn't, start building good credit.

We started owning houses by moving into fixers and doing them up.  A few years later we sold the first owner-occupied at a profit, which we used to buy  one owner-occupied single family house, and several rentals.  Our lender at the time would allow us to have up to 20 loans if we'd be willing to buy and live in them for at least 6 months, then move out and rent.  

You can owner-occupy up to a 4-units plex and still get the owner-occupied low-down payment and interest rate benefits.

If this is you first purchase try house hacking. Their are so many first time home buyer programs out here. You also have government grants to help with down payment. I used this method for my first investment property, which was a 3 unit. You would have to live in the property for a few years but it works! According to my lender your credit score has to be at least a 640. If I were you I would talk to a mortgage broker or you local bank to see where you stand. Good luck!