Real Estate Investing at 14

Lender · Marlboro, NJ · Member since 2025 · 243 posts · 150 votes

Hunter, the fact that you’re thinking about this at 14 already puts you ahead of most people. If you stay consistent and keep building real skills over time, you’ll give yourself a serious shot at becoming a very successful entrepreneur.

I’d focus on three things:

1) Skills before properties.
At your age, the goal isn’t to buy real estate yet. It’s to build high-income skills. Sales, marketing, construction, underwriting, negotiation, content creation. Something that can generate strong income in your early 20s. Real estate follows income.

2) Get obsessed with understanding deals.
Start underwriting properties for practice. Pull listings, estimate rents, calculate expenses, and decide whether you’d buy them and why. By the time you’re 18, if you’ve analyzed a few hundred deals, you’ll think differently than most adults.

3) Stack capital early and invest wisely.
Keep learning about index funds and long-term investing. Build savings aggressively once you start earning. Your advantage is time and compounding.

Also, don’t romanticize the property you grew up on. Watching that transformation is powerful, but what you’re really seeing is preparation meeting opportunity. The investor had the vision, the capital, and the willingness to execute. That’s the real lesson. If your long-term goal is to buy that 10 acres back someday, your mission right now is simple: build income, discipline, and knowledge.

Real estate is a tool. Your earning power is the engine. Stay focused, and you’ll be very hard to compete with by 25.

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Scott Mac

Austin, TX · Member since 2019 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes

8mo

Plan on working and saving money in a savings account.

Work as much as you can and make as much as you can as quickly as possible.

Know how much money you will need to get started and that includes having some backup money.

Understand how the loans work that you will need. Meaning understand what the requirements are for the amount of cash you'll need and what you must be personally credit-wise to qualify for the loan.

Understand that you will also need some cash reserves, which means money set aside that you can dip into for unplanned expenses such as long vacancies during a turn, or a roof replacement, etc...

Plan on getting yourself some kind of vehicle also, but watch your expenses on that vehicle as far as initial cost and insurance.

Good Luck!

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Sam McCormackBusiness Member

Real Estate Agent · Cincinnati, OH/NKY · Member since 2021 · 1k+ posts · 834 votes

8mo

Quote from @Hunter Hardbarger:

Hello, my name is Hunter. I'm 14 years old and deeply interested in entrepreneurship and real estate investing. Over the past couple of months, I've been self-educating daily on long-term rentals, short-term rentals, house hacking, and the BRRRR strategy.

I grew up on a beautiful 10-acre property in Hocking Hills, Ohio, with a pond, creek, and ravines. In 2023, my father was arrested, and in 2024 my family had to sell the home and property for around $300,000 and move. After we left, an investor purchased it, expanded and renovated the home, added a clubhouse, and turned it into what is now a high-performing short-term rental worth ~$1-2m.

Watching someone transform a property I once lived on into a successful investment has drawn me to media such as Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Richest Man in Babylon, the BiggerPockets podcast, and the REI industry as a whole. It made me realize that I don't just want to learn about real estate; I want to build the skills, capital, and discipline to acquire properties like that myself someday. I even find myself analyzing MLS deals for hours during class or when I could be playing video games instead; that's how much I enjoy real estate.

If you were 14 again in my situation, what steps would you take to reach financial freedom and possibly acquire that childhood 10-acre property? Sincerely grateful for the hand I have been dealt and for my ability to get into REI as early as I am.

Starting at 17 myself, I would focus on how to build a skill, be the best at it, and then get capital for investing. Not only that, but know how to manage your finances without lifestyle creep, AKA how to save to do the investing. So keep with REI, but focusing on building a skill that can serve people to make you money is what's most important at your stage right now. Whether that include real estate or not. Mine was find through being an agent in Greater Cincinnati

[email protected]859-443-4952

Sam McCormack Realtor

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Kerlous TadresBusiness Member

Realtor · Columbus, OH · Member since 2023 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

8mo

If I were 14, I'd get a part-time job, save aggressively, and learn to analyze 5 deals a week so I'm ready to buy my first house hack/BRRRR at 18–22.

[email protected]614-490-1163

Kerlous Tadres | Reafco Real Estate542 Reviews

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Hunter Hardbarger
OP
Dayton, OH · Member since 2026 · 5 posts · 8 votes
8mo
Quote from @Kerlous Tadres:

If I were 14, I'd get a part-time job, save aggressively, and learn to analyze 5 deals a week so I'm ready to buy my first house hack/BRRRR at 18–22.

Unfortunately, I am currently unable to secure a part-time position within driving distance that my mother is willing to take me to. Although I operate a lawn care and pressure washing business, I have not yet generated profits comparable to what I could earn from a traditional part-time job.
When summer arrives, I plan to distribute flyers throughout the subdivision and focus on gaining as many recurring customers as possible. I will save those earnings to invest in better equipment and to put toward purchasing a car when I turn 18.
Once I turn 16, I intend to apply for a part-time cashier position at Walmart and work as many hours as possible. I plan to allocate 80% of my earnings toward my first house hack and 20% toward a car.
My goal is to acquire my first house hack at 18 by saving aggressively over the next four years, building my credit, and applying for a mortgage with 3.5% down through FHA.

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Hunter Hardbarger

OP

Dayton, OH · Member since 2026 · 5 posts · 8 votes

8mo

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Aaron ZimmermanBusiness Member

Accountant · Chicago, IL · Member since 2018 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes

8mo

Hunter - truly inspiring that you're thinking about this at such a young age.

here's what I'd do now:

1. Understand personal finances first. I'd start reading set for life.

2. I would get part time work, ideally with a real estate investor that you can learn from. Be as useful to them as possible.

3. Educate yourself on real estate investing and best strategies to grow wealth over time.

4. understand analyzing deals and what a good deal will look like for you. I'd imagine you'd need a co signer so be prepared for that.

5. once you've done 1-4, network as much as you reasonably can. The more people you know, the higher the likelihood of success.

[email protected]

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Dan H.Pro Member

Investor · Poway, CA · Member since 2015 · 7k+ posts · 8k+ votes

8mo

I started when I was around 14 working for an estate lawyer/family friend. He would be the executor on various properties and many of them get dilapidated as people age, move into hospice, memory care , etc. He once was executor on an entire town east of San Diego, but I was already at university at that time so did not work that one.

Turning us kids loose on these properties was interesting. We would see properties go from dilapidated to beautiful and watch them sell mostly to the benefit of the heirs.

There was a lot to recognize and much of it went past me until I was older. So I took similar route with my son starting him at an age were his “help” likely was not help. His early mowing jobs looked like we had a drunk gardener. What we really had was a less than 10 year old gardener.

Today he is 23 years old and graduated from UCSB. He has managed a couple rehabs and multiple tenant flips. He has a small crew of independent contractors/friends that he doles out work to. He is provided work from 3 property/asset managers and typically has more work than he can handle that provides him a lot of experience. He knows how to estimate repair costs. He knows how to determine ARV. He knows how to determine market rents. He knows how to do most repairs. He has acquired a decent down payment. He is ready to invest but the market has challenges. He has a BP account, but I believe he has never posted. He has started on his RE license.

He is on the market for a beginner flip or a house hack MF (duplex to quad, prefer detached) with value add and bonus if it has alternative below market financing in his home market (San Diego). There are a lot of paths, but these have traditionally been good strategies for starting in RE investing and likely something for you to consider when the time is right.

Good luck

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Caleb Brown

Real Estate Agent · Kansas City · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes

8mo

If I was 14 I would....

1) Learn about managing personal finances. Budgeting, credit, improving income, etc. These are the building blocks to have any sort of wealth.

2) Find a side hustle in real estate or outside of it. At 14 you are limited but there is so many ways to hustle and make extra money.

3) Find someone in the game to have as your mentor. Be a sponge. If you can attend any meetups do so.

4) Be patient. You are 14. It's not realistic to tackle everything immediately, have a plan and let it play out.

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Real Estate Investing at 14

Real Estate Investing at 14

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