All Forum Posts by: Jeffrey Lester
Jeffrey Lester has started 10 posts and replied 46 times.
Post: I am going into college and want to buy my own property next year - advice?

- Real Estate Investor
- Great Falls, MT
- Posts 46
- Votes 6
@Damon Armstrong Touché, sir. Touché.
Post: I am going into college and want to buy my own property next year - advice?

- Real Estate Investor
- Great Falls, MT
- Posts 46
- Votes 6
I have not. I'll look into it! To be honest, I have no idea what a lease option is. Time to do some googling :-)
Post: I am going into college and want to buy my own property next year - advice?

- Real Estate Investor
- Great Falls, MT
- Posts 46
- Votes 6
Hello, fellow BiggerPocketers!
I recently graduated high school, and next year I'm attending the university (located about 3 hours from my hometown). I desperately want to get started in real estate, and I thought, why not start in college?
My plan would be to buy either a) a single family home and have a couple of college roommates to pay the mortgage and other fees or b) buy a duplex and have the tenant pay the mortgage and fees.
I'm not cash flow hungry at the moment - I simply would like to have my living costs covered, learn how to landlord, and build equity on my first property. I feel like the experience gained from owning a college would be tremendous and would effectively propel me forward to a successful future in real estate.
There seems to be a big problem, though - how do I get the money to do this? I could have $10,000 saved up a year from now, which would be a 10-20% down payment! but as far as I can tell! I can't get a loan. My income is about $6,000/year since I will be in college, and my credit score will not be well established since I have only had a credit card for a few months.
I do not want to bring family into the equation (i.e. asking my parents to consign). Is there any options available that you guys know of? I would rather not ask friends for money, I simply do not want to get caught up in that method of financing. I'm thinking a loan, most likely. I'm pretty sure I can't get a bank loan, so where do I go?
All input and advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
Post: [Graduating High School] I would like to flip a house this summer before college.

- Real Estate Investor
- Great Falls, MT
- Posts 46
- Votes 6
@Tom V. That's really good advice! I work with a girl whose father flips houses for a living, and I think I may offer a helping hand just to see how it's done. That could be extremely beneficial.
And I am going to try out the excercise you laid out in your comment. I think it's a brilliant learning experience!
Post: [Graduating High School] I would like to flip a house this summer before college.

- Real Estate Investor
- Great Falls, MT
- Posts 46
- Votes 6
Hey, guys! I really appreciate all the responses :-) After thinking about this a lot, I've decided that there's a lot of due diligence to
Do before my first deal - and that's simply educating myself and building a foundation for myself before I jump into this stuff. I have a brother who has always been interested I'm doing real estate, and he almost has his doctorate in economics. I talked to him last night, and he said he would consider trying a flip with my next summer, but that this summer and school year, I should spend time reading, learning, and working with a flipper for free to learn the basics of the type of project.
Again, thank you so much for the responses. I will do as much as I can to educate myself, and hopefully around this time next year, you can all hear about a flipping story from me. :-) I'll have many questions between that time and now, so I'll keep posting to the forums!
You guys rock.
Post: [Graduating High School] I would like to flip a house this summer before college.

- Real Estate Investor
- Great Falls, MT
- Posts 46
- Votes 6
Hello, fellow BiggerPocketers! I've been listening to the podcast for the last couple months and I finally decided to join this awesome community and create my first post.
As the heading suggests, I am graduating high school. I am graduating in 7 days, as a matter of fact. I have been accepted to the University of Montana with some decent scholarship money (yay), and I plan on studying Computer Science.
However, as we all know, college is outrageously expensive. That's why I thought to myself, "I should totally flip a house this summer before I head off to school". I've been working at my local country club as a bag boy during the summer since my freshman year, and, although it is a great summer job, I only make about $3,000 per summer. I would definitely rather use my time trying to flip a house, because I would (a) hopefully make more money than my summer job and (b) it would be excellent experience.
So, I have a list of questions for you investors out there:
- How should I go about this? Essentially, I have three months until I leave for college. I have about $3,500 saved up, and no one currently willing to say, "hey Jeff, here's $100,000 for that house you've been wanting to buy". I've been reading some of the popular posts on BP about getting started in flipping, but I can't really find any posts that are tailored to young, 18-year-old high schoolers that many people are bound to not take seriously.
- What would be the best way to find a house? I have ruled out direct marketing. My goal is to buy one house, fix it up, and flip it. I feel like DM would be an expensive time-waster for my current goals.
- What would be the best way for me to obtain the necessary funding? I could try for a bank loan, but my parents would need to cosign, and (1) they wouldn't even consider doing that for their 18-year-old son and (2) I'd rather keep immediate family out of the equation.
- I guess this is the most important question... Should I actually try to flip a house? Given my time constraint, age, and standing in life, I'm slightly worried that this may be a horrendous idea for me right now, and if you think it is, I'd like to hear it!
I'm trying to learn about house flipping as rapidly as possible, as I do not feel I have adequate knowledge right now in house flipping to be comfortable carrying out this type of project. So, I'm hoping to give myself 3-4 weeks of learning and researching before I begin the real process of flipping a house. I have made some good connections at my country club over the last few years, and I plan to talk to a person that owns a contracting business here in my hometown and also a very successful apartment complex owner about my idea.
I really appreciate any tips/comments/advice that you are willing to give me. I've got my fingers crossed for a very good summer!
Regards,
Jeff