14 year old looking to build capital
Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes
14 year old looking to build capital
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Specialist · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2013 · 260 posts · 245 votes
8y@Account Closed - Love your ambition, Michael. At 14, you are thinking the right way. Your age shouldn't stop you from going after what you want.
1. First, consume as much information on real estate as you can. Podcasts, forums, books, etc. At your age, people will question your ability to know anything. Be as educated as you can.
2. Network. Uber to a real estate events if you have to. Surround yourself with bosses who get things done. This will help elevate your game and get you into deals.
3. Volunteer your time to a realtor or flipper or someone with lots of deal flow. Real experience is the best reference to have. Reading can only get you so far. Work for free if you have to. It will pay off in the long run.
Do these things and your world will open up. You will find yourself in opportunities and ways to make money. Over time, someone will take a chance on you. Chase your dreams buddy. I'm rooting for you.
274 Replies
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yAdam Rego what do those people do? I may be interested if it would be safe. Also, so you would go to school while you are in the Air Force or you have to work first then go to their college for free?
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yPavs Doychev how did you find these people or places to get these phones for cheap from?
- Waterford, MI · Member since 2015 · 24 posts · 15 votes8yMichael Kantar when I did cars, it was smaller American made cars. Cheaper parts, and people were going for fuel economy.
- Waterford, MI · Member since 2015 · 24 posts · 15 votes8yMichael Kantar I would look on Craigslist, most recent or old posts. Also would buy a lot of 20 from eBay and sell on Craigslist. Make a $30/phone profit on those but at 14 that was great money did me.
- Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2017 · 35 posts · 9 votes8yMichael Kantar I have two pieces of advice for you: Challenge the dogma of the necessity of high school, and second, seek employment in the trades. I’ll explain more below. First off, your ambition is awesome. I wish I had caught the real estate bug at 14. I’m terms of raising capital, my advice to you would be to get an apprenticeship in the trades. From the time I was 14/15 to 18 I worked as a plumbing apprentice with a small company that worked on new construction and performed a fair amount of service calls (fixing stuff in existing homes). I learned a ton about the housing industry, mostly single family homes, and also really developed my work ethic during this time. I loved working as a plumber and quickly learned that work doesn’t feel like work when you love what you do. I have since moved on to engineering in the oilfield, but I always value that time I spent learning about the plumbing industry and really learning about myself during those formative years of my life. The benifits of obtaining an apprenticeship in the trades is two fold. First, you will develop a work ethic far beyond any of your peers that will serve you well in all aspects of your life. Second, the skills you learn in the trades will make you a better and more competent real estate investor in the future. The second piece of advice might be a little controversial, but I think it needs to be said. HIGH SCHOOL IS NOT NECESSARY. I never actually graduated high school (I did get a GED later, I’ll explain), I “dropped out” after the first semester of my freshman year. Personally I don’t regret this decision at all, because it afforded me more opportunity in the long run, I believe. As mentioned above, I worked as a plumber and saved a ton of money during the time I should have been in high school wasting time and waiting for the slowest person in class to finish the assignment. During my teen years I was also attending courses online through my local community college. By the time I should have been graduating from high school I had enough transferable college credit to be a sophomore in most undergraduate programs, and definitely had all my GE’s out of the way (psychology, English, sociology, history...) plus I had thousands and thousands of dollars in the bank. Having my GE’s out of the way allowed me to really focus on my core curriculum later on. I took the ACT and was accepted to a private university that I attended for ~1 year, and then I transferred to a state school in New Mexico, (New Mexico Tech) to peruse a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering. I THEN took the GED, which was sort of like graduating high school while in college, which gave me access to more scholarships. Essentially, my college career started when I was 18/19, ended right on time when I was 21, graduated debt free, I graduated with a 3.95 GPA in a stringent engineering program, and I actually got paid every semester to go to school through scholarships. I am now working with a 6 figure income just 1 year out of school and accumulating tons of capital to work on my real estate business. Now, I don’t say any of this to brag, I’m using this to illustrate a point. When I was 14, 15, 16..., not going to high school everyday and working as a plumber. I knew tons of people that more or less looked down on me and my parents for letting me ‘throw my life away’ by dropping out. But from where I am today, I’m not sure there could have been a better path for me at that point in my life. In my mind, high school, and the educational system in general as it is today, fits a very small group of people and it fits them well. But for the rest of us (and it sounds from your thought process and writing, you are probably one of the others) there are much better options for obtaining an education. Obviously, if you choose to go a more untraditional route, you’ll need your parents on board. And I know you mentioned you are a student athlete, and there’s ways to not be taking classes everyday at the high school and still participate in high school sports (look into dual enrollment). I would encourage you to plan on attending college though. It has served me well having a college degree, and if you get a job out of college that is in the same industry you studied in school, lenders will look at your college years as work experience which is super helpful for financing properties. Bottom line is this, if achieving financial freedom was something taught in school, there would be a lot less people working at jobs everyday that they hate. Don’t take things for granted, just because 99% of people are doing something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do in general, or that it’s the right thing for you to do. Thinking different can be risky sometimes, but the higher the risk, often times, the higher potential reward. You’re at the perfect point in your life to set yourself up for huge success. Don’t let other people turn you away from your end goal. Just because you’re 14 doesn’t mean you can’t know what you want for your life, take people’s advice into consideration but ultimately, it’s your life.
- Akron, OH · Member since 2016 · 24 posts · 12 votes8y
Well Aviation Supply Marines simply provide aircraft parts for the Aircrafts.Here is a link for a more detailed explanation.https://www.thebalance.com/marine-corps-enlisted-job-descriptions-3345696 . For all the military branches they have something called tuition assisistance witch will cover your college while you are still in the military.Here is a link for a more detailed explanation http://www.military.com/education/money-for-school/tuition-assistance-ta-program-overview.html . You still get to use the GI Bill when you get out of the military even if you used Tuition Assistance while you are in the military.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yPierce Lovesee from what it seems like you still had a high school education technically. Also, I know my parents would never let me drop out of high school. But I can still get a job with the trades over the summer. And do all of these other things on the side while I do school
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yAdam Rego is this the only part of the military like this or are there other places like this? I will look over what you sent me and read it over and see what I think of it.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8ySo pretty much you are saying that I should buy from eBay and Craigslist and sell from eBay and Craigslist? Pavs Doychev if I do this people probably won't buy my items because there are others $30 cheaper than my item.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yBut I will try and buy things cheaper from yard sales, dollars stores, etc. and sell on eBay for higher. I
- Real Estate Broker · Ontario · Member since 2017 · 4 posts · 2 votes8y
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
But I will try and buy things cheaper from yard sales, dollars stores, etc. and sell on eBay for higher. I
Sales is definitely something you can learn and be very profitable from at a young age. Developing skills in sales will benefit you in so many ways down the road. It's a grind at the end of the day, especially if you're going to estate sales it could take awhile to find something worth selling. But you'll learn how to negotiate, and make deals, deal with people and work for yourself.
You could try finding tools at estate sales, getting them for a good price and then flip them to mechanics at garages for a profit. Check the market rates and then undercut them. Most mechanics garages have a tool truck that pops by once a week to sell tools to the mechanics anyway, so those guys are almost always buying anyway.
I am not sure how profitable reselling dollar store items would be, but I would expect you should be able to find killer deals on high quality tools at estate sales. Air tools are a good start, they are not expensive to repair either (but could be hard for you to test without an air compressor).
- Rental Property Investor · Oklahoma City, OK · Member since 2017 · 35 posts · 9 votes8yMichael Kantar I’m not saying you absolutely need to drop out of high school. That was a route that worked very well for me, it might not work well for you. But what I am encouraging you to do is look at other options obtainable to you at this point in your life. You’re 14 years old, you may not be able to start a real estate empire, but you can be working on things that would prove more useful in the long run than spending 6 to 8 hours a day sitting in classrooms where much of the day is wasted. You have the ambitions of people far beyond your age. You’re the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So if you’re trying to get to a stage in life that many people don’t obtain until they’re 40 50 or 60, high school might not be the best place to be spending the majority of your time. Anyways, it’s nothing specific to you, skipping out on high school is something I recommend to a lot of people because it proved to be such a good choice in my life. Simply another option to consider. But if your parents would never ever consider you leaving high school, continuing your education online, and working and earning money during the time you would other wise spend sitting around in school, then that option might not work for you.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yPierce Lovesee ok thanks, so what you are saying is that I need to think out of the box pretty much. Thanks for the help I will they that out for sure!
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yWarren John I know people who have done the dollar store method and it worked for them that's why I would want to try that out. I will also try the yard sales and if I can find any deals on eBay and craigslist as well! Thanks!
- All Over, USA · Member since 2017 · 689 posts · 756 votes8yOP, with the advice you’ve gotten on here, you’ll be light years ahead of the curve by the time you have real money to back you. Even if you choose the “education-heavy” route (bachelors, masters, advanced degrees), you’ll quickly pass the vast majority of your colleagues who didn’t go to higher education (in science & tech fields). I was similar to you, and fascinated by money and investing. I convinced myself I was “analyzing” stocks during the .com bubble while I was in elementary and middle school. Started off making my Dad money and then eventually took over my own UTMA stock account and learned from that throughout high school. Got to college and started a drop-shipping eBay business. That gave me my first $10-20k to play with. Got to med school, into option trading, and then quickly realized nothing would make as much guaranteed capital for me as my career would. My two cents of advice is prioritize education, preferably in a useful field that can make you a high W2 earner if all else fails - engineering, medicine, etc. You won’t go wrong and you’ll make a lot of great friends/colleagues along the way. Money will always follow.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yAaron Hunt thanks! Do you think I should get a business degree or something else? From what you were saying it seems like you think I shouldn't. But I think I should get a business related degree, what do you think?
- Rental Property Investor · Durham, NC · Member since 2016 · 7k+ posts · 7k+ votes8yMichael Kantar Just to fo back to my earlier comment about jobs I had at 14, soccer referee was by far the most lucrative. I’d make 20-25 (at 14) for a 1.5 hour game. By time I was sixteen I was consistently making 30 plus a game and doing 8 games in a weekend. You can make serious money doing this. Costs about a hundred bucks a year to stay registered. I would keep it simple as far as making money goes. Things like blogs, dropshipping, eBay flipping, YouTube videos etc are all difficult to make money at as those things are all now very saturated. I can offer a fair amount of experience and advice on one educational area (engineering) that have been mentioned here. I studied hard in HS, graduated near top of my class and studied engineering in college (graduating with honors). I’m hoping to close on my third rental by end of this year (I’m 23). I don’t say this to brag, merely to give you detailed look at what I’ve done and where it’s gotten me so far. It should be known that engineering is a difficult degree. About 10 percent of those who start finish. It’s 4 years of literal grind. That being said I wanted to an engineer since about your age, so I didn’t view failure as an option. Now I want to be an investor so failure isn’t an option. Next year I plan on starting grad school (for engineering) part time, while working full time and investing part time. Education isn’t for everyone but it can sure help a lot. PS don’t do engineering for the money, you’ll never finish the degree
- 8yStephanie MedellinBusiness MemberMortgage Broker · CA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 642 votes
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
Stephanie Irto I will definitely check out the construction/property management job and see if that work. The only problem would possibly be if there's child labor laws.
Good point. You might want to check this site for more info on getting a job - https://labor.ny.gov/youth/14-to-17.shtm
It doesn't look like construction work would really be an option yet, but maybe something related that isn't considered dangerous.
Stephanie Medellin, Loan Factory58 Reviews - Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yCaleb Heimsoth thanks for telling me about your story! It's great to hear how people did everything their own way and how it impacted them.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yAaron Hunt Joe did you do your eBay drop shipping business? Did it work out? What did you sell?
- Investor · Jackson, MS · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 769 votes8y
My advice Michael, is to go to work with a flipper and find out as much about repairing houses as you can. If you find that work too strenuous, best you concentrate on your studies. You can make money working your body or your mind, preferably both, but you can't do it by not working.
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8ySusan Maneck I will try and do that, thanks for the help!
- Yonkers, NY · Member since 2017 · 506 posts · 95 votes8yAaron Hunt I meant to say how in the comment up above
- 8yNikki KofkinPro MemberReal Estate Agent · Chicago, IL · Member since 2016 · 82 posts · 32 votes
@Account Closed you've had so many replies but I figured I would add my two cents as well! If you are trying to raise capital right now, I wouldn't put money in stocks. Stocks are usually an okay long term investment. I think everyone else gave some really solid advice. Educate yourself as much as you can and start saving your money now!
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