Don't confuse the two.You're 19, good for you to getting involved but keep it trim.

The easiest of all the thing I've been involved in.

This will allow you to get the sheriff involved immediately.If you are already past the notice period then you will probably have to follow whatever state laws are in place for the notification period and possibly the eviction process.

I am starting to get involved with real estate investing, but I am only a college student, so I do not have the income to place a 20% down payment for most properties.

The same players involved with some additions along the way.

From day one I treated my involvement in real estate as a real business.This means, I had an advertising budget, a lead generating and follow up process, a back end process and money source and above all an experienced mentor.  

What other kinds of loans or financing strategies are available that don't involve using too much of your own cash?

How much upfront costs are typically involved in a project before you know if it's a viable project to pursue? 

Now, if they don't want to do that for whatever reason and don't have anybody to work with who would do that for you, I'd have to agree with you that they'd better invest at home rather than getting involved in something they don't understand.

i invest via 50/50 partnerships. i find/coordinate/manage the deal, and my partner brings the capital to the deal & approves large expenses. on their end, it's just about as hands-off as investing in a syndication, but they get to be one of just two main 50/50 decision-makers. and when there are just two parties involved in a deal like this, vs it being diluted across tons of investors, i find it's also possible for the capital partner to see much higher returns. when it comes to teaming up in real estate i'm much more relationship-based and less transactional. i'd rather do fewer very high-quality, carefully selected deals, each with just one capital partner, so that i can really serve that person's best interests and get us amazing results, vs. doing a bunch of diluted deals. i also feel a lot of syndicators out there are newer to the game, lack experience, haven't used their own money enough, and don't use their investors' dollars with enough caution. it gives the high quality syndicators a bad name.