Ready to Start Investing but I'm in College

[Cody Brown]

Hey guys! So I'm looking for any advice you may have for someone in my situation. I've been thinking about investing in real estate since I was in high school. I'm currently a sophomore in college. And recently I've grown all the more interested in doing this. So I've been checking out the forums and posts here at BiggerPockets and I've been reading books to try and educate myself some. Im mostly interested in land and/or buy-and-hold single family homes. But I dont really know where to go from here. Im a full time student. I only have time for a full time job during the summer so I dont really have any income. And I only have about $1000 in savings. I feel like thats not gonna get me very far. Any advice/suggestions? Thanks!

[Mark Henderson]

Hi Cody - I'm a newbie investor also. But have a little background in real estate.

A great way to start might be to get into house hacking - buying a multi-family home or a single family home and renting out the rooms for a profit over the mortgage. This way you can start saving the profits for your next investment - and or allow you to live rent free.

Often there are down-payment assistance programs locally to help you with a down payment. Sometimes they loan up to $15,000 for the down payment from what I see.

Is there anyone that can help you co-sign on a loan? If you put together a presentation and show family or friends that you have a solid strategy - they might be interested in partnering with you on the deal.

There are many ways you can get started. I'm sure a lot of the young investors on this site can help you or at least share their stories about how they got started at your age.

Best of luck with your investments. It looks like you're already making the right moves by studying and getting involved here with BP.