All Forum Posts by: Isaac Pyle

@Isaac Pyle If you're not HYPED ABOUT REAL ESTATE INVESTING get more HYPED!! Colorado is still the wild west for investors and smaller cities still have opportunity. 

Maybe you can work a job during school and save for a down payment. I had a part-time job throughout college. You only need 3% for a conventional loan, owner occupied, with good credit. Are you building credit? That's an easy thing to get started on during college. Make friends with like minded people. I can't stress that enough. I waited 5 years after moving to Indianapolis before getting into investing. I watched deal after deal pass me by in my own neighborhood. 

@Isaac Pyle - Always happy to help house hackers (and aspiring house hackers)! I hope you enjoy the book. You'll have to let me know what you think. 

You are right in that you won't be able to qualify unless you have a steady job. However, your parents may be able to co-sign for you if they are willing to do that? That's a way around that. 

@Isaac Pyle,

First- Read, read as much as you can!  The more you learn before you start, the easier it will be.

Second- Go to the local meetups, and see if you can help anyone with their rehabs and work for free.      It will give you experience, and if they can teach you how to do stuff (ie: change outlets,locks, install toilets, etc), it will help you tremendously when you get your own house.    Experience is invaluable, if you can learn how to do things yourself, it will be a huge help when you get your own!  Also, if you're working for free, the investor will likely be inclined to help you and share contacts!

@Isaac Pyle - The first thing you need to do is educate yourself. I recommend reading the BiggerPockets books, listening to the podcast, watching the webinars, and continue to be active in the forums. 

While you are educating yourself, pinch your pennies and start saving! In the greater Denver area you will likely need at least $20,000 to comfortably get into your first house hack. First step is always to save and educate.

If you hit your $20,000 mark before you graduate, there is NO REASON why you couldn't get started early. Maybe try to find a place in Longmont, Lafayette, Eerie, Superior, or one of the other towns outside of Boulder to get your first house hack. 

@Isaac Pyle

Save as much money as you can and become comfortable with the idea of living a lifestyle on a limited budget far stricter compared to your income than what most people adhere to. You can't really make or lose a lot of money as a broke college student, so now is really the time to get your financial house in order. Now is the time to start learning about important concepts like lifestyle creep and hedonic adaptation that keep so many people broke all their lives.

Many young people who grasp the financial necessity of investing early on in their lives still often never manage to get it together. For many, the reason is that they fail to find the right life partner to go on a long-term financial journey with. Too men and women get trapped into marriage with spouses who will have no interest in saving and investing money over the long haul. This actually happens more frequently for women than it does for men. Pick your partners carefully.

Make a commitment to read at least one book on personal finance every year for the rest of your life. I would start with reading Set for Life by @Scott Trench. Much of Scott's money came from househacking. The big four books that I recommend to everyone with similar interests to yours are: Rich Dad, Poor Day by Robert Kiyosaki, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko, and Your Money or Your Life by Robin and Dominguez. There are many more.

None of this advice is going to help you if what you're really looking for is a way to buy a McMansion and a Lambo before you're twenty-five.

I think all of those are good ideas, but I want to emphasize reading! Read every bigger pockets book by the time you graduate college. Also, you could consider renting out an entire house and then sub-letting the rooms, saving yourself some money in the middle and living for free (or less).

Since you're looking at a two-year period that will likely be 'inactive' with respect to real estate, you should discover what kind of investment strategy you're interested in. If you're interested in buying and holding or flipping, perhaps you should jump on a contractor's crew to learn some basic rehab skills. Those skills will be useful in either of those strategies but will also be useful in your personal life.

Beyond that, perhaps you should consider an internship with a real estate agent or property management company. I know on a lot of occasions that property management companies that manage school rentals give out free rent to their employees. That's a pretty good deal because you can minimize your expenses while on limited income while also learning how to manage properties.

In the meantime, you should definitely link up with your local Real Estate Investors Association meetup as well as any BiggerPockets meetup. Networking is something you want to do so you can ease different kinds of burdens down the line. One issue that folks have, for example, is finding a reliable contractor. However, if you're able to network with folks that have been in the business, you'll be able to extend your network to include reliable sources. Good luck with your schooling.