Hello Biggerpockets,
I am currently halfway done with college, and want to start investing into real estate, but am having a hard time deciding what to do with my current situation. I can break it down as best I can
A few months ago, I made an impulse purchase to buy a real estate license course. I thought that the ability to work "whenever I wanted", and the commission potential and income, would help me get the basic funding needed for when I was finished with college. Now that I am nearing being ready to take my real estate exam, I am having second thoughts.
I recently talked to one of the main real estate agency companies in my hometown. According to the managing broker, if I put my head down and worked, I could make $15,000 in my first 12 months, give or take, because of the process of getting my foot in the door with meeting people, advertising, and so forth. This meeting made me realize that it would not be as much as I had originally thought.Despite being willing to work, I was taken aback by this number, because it was not even guranteed. I also discovered that despite research (likley poor research on my part) that getting situated and licensed would cost much more than I had expected. It would cost around $3,500 to safely get my head above water with the licensing expenses, and I currently do not have that much, as I have most of my money currently in either a retirement fund or going toward college. So, I would have to get a small business loan, either privately or conventionally. I live very minimally at home currently, still with my parents, so I would only be spending about $350 a month total, including the loan (assuming I can get it for the time period I calculated, which is 3 years), so I would still be able to put aside about $11,000 for school, a car, and the downpayment for my first deal.
My other option is simply getting a full time job during my last 2 years of college, either at a bank or a similar institution. By my estimations, with my qualifications, I could get a job making around $30,000. Assuming that minimum, I would only be spending about $250 a month on average, which comes out to $3,000 a year, with $27,000 left over (or 25,500 after taxes, assuming I contribute about $5,000 to an IRA that year, which I full intend on doing) for the above.
I hope to move away about a year after I am finished with college, after I get a couple deals in my hometown, one of which I plan to be a house hack, multifamily. I want to purchase a good quality car, near new (not brand new), so that I do not have to worry about buying another one for at least the duration of time I plan on aggressively investing to achieve about 12k a month in cash flow, over the next 12 years. I would be attending online college, so class schedules or other things like that will not affect me, but a higher quality online education would cost more than my local university by a few thousand, leaving my total debt to be about $8,000.
I am simply looking for the best option, and am torn, because while I know I want to become financially free by 35, I also know I will never get these college days back, to simply do as I please relatively, with the least amount of responsibility I will have from this point forward. I am stuck between taking a chance on being an agent, or getting a consistent full time income for the foreseeable future. Any and all advice is appreciated!
If I need to clarify anything, please let me know, I know this is a lot of information.
