Okay, i have been consulting with many of my colleagues, friends, family and mentors about purchasing my first real estate investment property during college. I have have been receiving more negative feedback then positive on the topic. I have been tactically & actively trading securities on stock exchanges since I was 16, so I like to think I have some clue on what it means to "invest" and build wealth(at least that's the goal). The time has come where I'm looking for a place to live close to my school in Kansas City, MO - where I have the opportunity to establish another business/investment venture, but in a new environment other than secondary exchange markets. 

Basically, I would be paying the same amount to pay someone to live in there home(renting) while gaining NO EQUITY and generating NO CASH flow versus taking on house debt(lovely) and sub-leasing rooms(cash flow) while building equity YOUNG - which could be a win or a lose depending on how I can go about the venture. I have started pulling together numbers on buying a home to house-hack to sub-lease rooms to other college students in the dense Country Club District of KCMO.

I am looking for some advice on this... My cousin has become very successful at this game(though he is in the LA market), yet many people think this is an almost suicidal catastrophe I am taking on. But, I see it as an opportunity to start my real estate investment portfolio early, before the competition, while building equity, and generating cash flow versus losing money month-to-month paying someone else to live in their property. I have good credit that i have been working to build for events like this and I have enough money for a down payment through an FHA loan and looking for a house ranging from $60K - $160K.

Let me know what you think. I am looking for some feedback from a different audience on this issue --> "should" a 19 year college student invest in real estate? And If the opportunity arises, then how should one go about completing the task?