Joseph: IMO, its possible and your headed in the right direction, that is to buy a house when you are young. I might throw out a couple of different idea's for you that worked for me as a 18yr old college kid a long time ago.. I got my salesmans license in MA when I was 18, went to work summers for a local broker (1960's). I was enthusastic and understood real estate enough, but what made me successful was my enthusiasim for the area I summered in and my knowledge of the area. But the other influence that I had over older, more experienced brokers, was that all of my buyers were many years older. This helped because the buyers kind of looked upon me and related to me as if I was their son or grandchild. They trusted me and what I said! If I didn't know all the technical answers, back at the office my boss would fill in the techie details on closing. I did know enough to ask for the sale from the potential buyers, so to speak, so I had no problems asking for the buyers deposit.
During those summer months, I sold a bunch of houses, and I excelled at listing properties for the same reason, "my youth and desire". My friends were working at miniumn wage (about $2.00 hour) summer jobs, while I was making realtively big comission checks. However the best part was when I was back at college and those listing commission checks kept rolling in because my listings were being sold by other brokers, and I got a listing commision! While at college in Boston, my broker continued to send me leads which I contacted and if they were a reasonable driving distance from me, I would take my mls book, or pitch book of our listings and go visit them at their residence. Then I would meet them on weekend and try to sell them a house..
I just want to mention that as I stated above this is my brokerage experience as a salesperson in 1960's, prior to franchising agencies, and agent teams and technology. I am not familiar how agencies treat and pay their brokers today, as I am not activily working in an agency selling houses, I am active in investing and private lending for the past 25 years. The story above is how I got started.
Getting back to your more specific question, my brief response is that with a part-time job or limited income its always a challenge to find a traditional lender to finance you, you have good credit, which is a must. I am sure there are other folks on Bigger Pockets who can give you better advice on traditional lenders i.e., (jump through hoops- loans) than I can. However, my approach would be to find a reasonable JV partner, or private lender to work with, or better yet an owner financed property. I am new to using Bigger Pockets, but I can expand on those idea's however you should email me directly if you want to discuss further. Best of luck!
