Preparation to begin Investing

[Evan Folse]

Hey everyone!

My name is Evan Folse. I’m a college student at LSU majoring in computer science. I’m hoping to get into real estate investing a couple years after graduating pending job opportunities and funding of course. Likely a house hack to start.

That being said, does anyone have advice on things I could do for the next year and a half to two years to better prepare myself?

Advice on running property numbers? Books to read? Podcast to listen to? Things you wish you would have done prior to getting started?

Thanks!

[Samuel Awosolu]

Hello Evan,

It's good that you are preparing yourself now. I can tell you as a loan officer most college students that come out of school and are looking to get into their first property struggle with college debt.

My advice would be to keep your other debts down like credit cards, buying a new car, taking out personal loans, etc.  Monitor your credit scores and try to stay above 650. Keep a separate high yield savings account with no debit card access so you can build up reserves for a down payment.

If I had to do all over again when I came out of school. I would house hack a duplex or triplex. This is a great way to enter real estate investing by living in one unit and renting out the others. In most cases your tenants can pay all or most of your mortgage. You can do this with an FHA loan which will allow you to put down 3.5% of the purchase price. The hardest part for most people is staying disciplined with spending and putting away the funds for when it's time to make the purchase.