What Should I be Doing as a 17-year old?

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What Should I be Doing as a 17-year old?

Cameron Dye
Fort Smith, AR · Member since 2018 · 41 posts · 62 votes

What's up BiggerPockets community! My name's Cameron and I'm a 17 year old high school senior from Fort Smith, Arkansas. I'm going to college next year at the University of Arkansas to study Investments and Securities but my biggest passion is Real Estate. From the time I read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" I've been fascinated by the concept of real estate investing, specifically multi-family real estate investing. I dedicate almost all of my time to learning from the typical sources like books, podcasts, and youtube videos etc. My question is, whats the next step?

What action should/can I take now? I know I need to build my network and experience/knowledge and the best way to do that is to find a mentor and provide value, but what can I do at 17?

I have no aversions to working for a real estate agency or investment group and making cold-calls (for free, in exchange for experience and knowledge) or something like that, but is that something that's even possible for my age? My main concern right now is getting educated and developing the necessary skills to succeed in this field while also building up my network.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated, I'm VERY ambitious and I have some pretty big goals so I'm very eager to get started with this!

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Andrew Flora
Rental Property Investor · North Vernon, IN · Member since 2018 · 136 posts · 192 votes
7y

My advice is my opinion and it is very extreme but if you're serious about real estate and retiring at 30 this is what you do.

Dont go to that university(unless you have a full ride scholarship). The student loan debt will cost you years of retirement. If you must go to school go to trade school or community college.

Never finance a car for any reason.

Work two jobs for a few years to try to save your first 20-30k or more. Consider working for a contractor to learn handyman skills, that will be very valuable when you start investing.

When you buy your first home you must buy a multi family with an FHA loan and house hack.

Avoid debt on anything other than rental properties and live very frugally.

Dont date until you are 25. By then you will know what you truly need as a partner, find someone with the same drive and frugal discipline. If you marry someone that wants a big fancy house and always needs a brand new car you will forever be trying to make up for those debts.

If you do all this and stay focused you will be financially free no later than 30.

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  • Alexis Bliss
    Real Estate Agent · Syracuse, NY · Member since 2018 · 17 posts · 14 votes
    7y

    Cameron, FHA househacking is a great start. And not just a great start, but a great move anytime you can pull it off. I added an FHA househack to my existing portfolio in my mid-forties. :-) And I'll do it again soon!

    0Reply
  • Johnathon Sesi
    Realtor · Rochester Hills, MI · Member since 2018 · 27 posts · 18 votes
    7y

    @Cameron Dye

    Had I had my head on straight and thought about getting into the REI world when I was finishing high school, I would've passed on college. The amount of money you will depend of 4 +\- Years will be significant and could in turn be used to market yourself as a real estate agent or other area of REI.

    If in fact you really do love this industry and you are already goal setting, go get your license when you turn 18 and GRIND GRIND GRIND.

    I can’t speak enough on how important it is to live below your means. I was dumb when I graduated. Just about every dollar that I earned went towards shopping at the mall and going out to parties. None, and I mean NONE of that means a damn thing later in life. Earn money and STACK it for future investments. Screw the latest shoes and clothing. If ya want to go out and party with friends, by all means do it, but keep it to a bare minimum. Focus on your goals and watch your crew be left behind because they are too worried about boozing and getting girls.

    Good luck young sir.

    1Reply
  • Jeremy Mangen
    Real Estate Agent · Minneapolis · Member since 2018 · 39 posts · 28 votes
    7y

    I’ll keep this stupid simple.

    Network like your life depends on it. And then try to provide value to the investors in your meetups.

    Invest money into taking them out to dinner, invest time into working with them on their projects for free, just get yourself in the company if those doing what you want to do. If you go to 3-4 networking events a month and take 3-4 investors out to coffee every single month for the next year, you’ll have incredible options to move forward. You’ll be established in the community as “the hungry 18 year old.” You’ll earn respect and at some point you’re going to really connect with an investor who will be willing to mentor or help you out in some way.

    After you’re established in the community you can start trying to find deals and bring them to your investor friends to see if they’ll work the deal with you for most of the profit.

    Wealth building is a team activity. Get your “unofficial board of advisors” together and hang out with those whose mindsets are where you want to be.

    1Reply
  • Emmanuel Rios
    Arlington, TX · Member since 2018 · 2 posts · 0 votes
    7y

    @Cameron Dye have PATIENCE. I was in the same shoes as u but i struggle financially bc of traumatic childhood w weed therefore delayong me in getting a car. Point is to prrssure urself too much bc eventually you'll break & might feel discouraged. Never forget to be at peace with urslef then and only then u will be able to do what u want/can. I still don't have a car but that'll change rlly soon. Best of luck my g

    0Reply
  • John Ward
    Developer · Manhattan Beach, CA · Member since 2019 · 4 posts · 7 votes
    7y

    Cameron, you are headed in the right direction. My son is also 17. He worked for me in the last 4 summers. He started out shredding, then AP/AR, the property management and last summer he was actually searching for apartment investment opportunities. He is also a senior and his intention is to study RE as a major and finance or business as a minor. He recently started a part-time job at Marcus Millichap as an "analyst". His job entails mining for seller's phone numbers and then calling to offer market analysis and other services that sellers might want. He makes about 75 calls per day. Being around all the young aggressive RE agents at his office is very motivating and he is learning a lot. I suggest you make a resume and head to some nearby commercial RE groups and try to get a part-time analyst position. The experience will be great, you will make some money and BTW, your college will love that you worked in your career path. Further, you might be able to keep the job in the fall and have some extra bucks for the school year. Good luck

    2Reply
  • Jordan Thibodeau
    Rental Property Investor · San Jose, CA · Member since 2013 · 486 posts · 170 votes
    7y

    @Cameron Dye I keep hearing people down play the importance of college, but you have to understand you aren't hearing from the people who didn't go to college and failed. We are suffering from a degree of survivorship bias. You aren't hearing from the person who dropped out of school and is now working at 7-11 (not to say there's anything bad about that, but not ever college drop out story ends in success). So when making any decision you need to listen to all sides, the winners and the losers so you can come up with a well researched decision.

    First of all, be easy on yourself. You’re a teenager, your life hasn’t even begun. You don’t know yourself and haven’t had that much exposure to the outside world.

    Most people who graduate from high school or college don’t really know what they want to do with their lives. And that’s perfectly ok. I would by lying to if I said I know what I want to do exactly with my life, I have general things I want to accomplish, but I don’t have everything exactly figured out.

    The path becomes clearer through experience. Life is a giant game of process of elimination. You try a multitude of things and you work towards figuring out what you like and don’t. You try something, you don’t like it, great! Now that’s one less thing to try in the future and you have learned more about yourself. Do that enough times and your path begins to materialize.

    Lets rephrase your question: At what disadvantage am I putting myself at if I don’t get a college degree OR learn a trade (Plumbing, Carpentry, Construction, etc.)?

    There’s currently a rebellion going on against going to college. A lot of cool kids like to talk about not going to school and how so many billionaires dropped out and are now doing great.

    That’s fantastic, but what’s wrong with those arguments are a few key issues:

    • Most people saying this have college degrees and are financially better off for doing so (assuming they didn’t run up the college loan credit card, more on that later). The data still shows that having a college degree results in higher earnings potential than non college degree holders.[1]
    • Not getting a college degree or developing a trade is like going to war without basic training. Sure, a lucky few will equip themselves on the field with guns they stole from the enemy, and a lucky few will be able to rise to the ranks of generals, but for all that weren’t lucky might either get critically injured or killed by all of those who were taught the basics of how to fire a weapon, work as a team, navigate in the field, and learning . Most companies require a college degree and you’re setting yourself up for a lifelong disadvantage.
    • Unless you have a better opportunity than college or working a trade, you’re better off getting some sort of an education. Most of the people who planned to return to school later didn’t because they had a kid and became tied to their low paying job.
      • Life becomes immensely more difficult as you age. You might get into a relationship, start a family, or your parents might get old and you need to take care of them. When you’re 18, it’s peak time to focus on your development, you will never have the same window again.
    • Companies use a college education as a filtering mechanism for hiring.Some large companies will deny potentially great candidates job opportunities because of the lack of a college degree. Now hopefully this will begin to phase out, but you don’t want to put into a position where you’re at a disadvantage for not having one. If you look at it from an employments perspective a college degree at least serves as an indicator that a person is conscientious enough to complete assignments, has an ability to work on a team & follow instruction, and has a baseline level of communication skills.
    • The people who have survived without them are suffering from survivor-ship bias (meaning we aren’t hearing from the people who failed).
      • Sadly, we aren’t all as gifted and lucky as Zuckerberg, Steve, Bill, Dell, and etc. While these arguments seem to make sense on face value, we have to understand the importance of base rates. Base rates are the standard probability of an event concurring. For instance if 1 out of every million high school drop outs have the probability of being successful as Steve Jobs, that means you have a 0.000000000001% chance of that happening.
    • Most of the people who are saying college is too expensive aren’t including the huge cost-savings involved with community college.
      • Most of the people making arguments against college focus on private schools costing $50k plus per year (not including interest if you take out a loan), which is a high price if you don’t finance it properly. It doesn’t make sense to spend $100k for two years of General education classes that can be completed at community college for $15k.[2] By going to community college we saved $85k because we didn’t go to private school for two years OR almost $38K if we went to state school. Then you can decide to either go to state school, lets say San Jose state. You’re looking at $19,000 per year assuming you live with your parents .[3] All in, you’re looking at ~$53k for college. Now if you go back to the graph above and multiply the differential between college graduate and non college graduate (about $17k in pay), you’ll discover that your degree will pay for itself in about 3 years and 2 months.

        Or, you can go to private school for two years which will cost you $100k + community college of $15K = $115K. That will take you almost 8 years to pay off. With private school, you have a longer payback period for loans, but you could argue that makes up for itself with the perceived credibility (meh) and network you develop.

        Finally, this assume you didn’t apply for any scholarships, which is the biggest mistake you could probably make. Yes some of us our financially better off so don’t qualify for certain types of aid, but there’s always a scholarship out there for you if your grades are good enough and you know how to hunt for them.
    • Even if you get a random social sciences degree and you take your studies seriously you should be able to:
      • 1. Communicate clearly.
      • 2. Persuade people with well thought out arguments.
      • 3. Develop a strong network that leads to new job opportunities.
    • The three aforementioned points are critical for your ability to function well in our society and can be honed inside of college. Of course you can do it outside of college, anything is possible, but it takes a special person do hold themselves accountable to develop their skills on a regular basis.

      In the end, college and the trades, are still worth it if you finance it correctly and don’t run up the credit card. Nothing in life is for certain, it’s really what you make out of the college and trade school experience. But basic on the numbers, if you don’t do basic training, the odds of you surviving the battle are greatly diminished.
    0Reply
  • Mike Stahlman
    Investor · Saint Peters, MO · Member since 2016 · 88 posts · 23 votes
    7y
    @Don Gouge Wow great tip for new credit.
    0Reply
  • Griffin Thomas
    West Lebanon, NH · Member since 2017 · 21 posts · 6 votes
    7y

    That's awesome you are so interested so early! I agree with building credit. When it comes to getting financing and lending that will become very helpful. I would recommend just getting experience in the field. The more practical experience you have the more you can relate to people in the industry and communicate and connect with them.

    0Reply
  • Mark Gonzalez
    Mount Vernon, OH · Member since 2017 · 12 posts · 3 votes
    7y

    Hi Cameron, I've been following Valuetainment along with Biggerpockets.  A 15 year old asked him how to start making money and he mentioned that he could start making money on Instagram. There are a lot of little things out there to make money using the web that doesn't take much of your time.  Biggest thing is to save money how ever you can.  Than you can take that money and start out with a small partnership deal with someone more experienced calling the shots.  Observe and take notes, and keep putting your returns into partnership deals, whether you do physical labor or invest money, until you have enough skill and money to go out on your own.  If you have to rent to go to college. Find someone to help you get a house that you can house hack to save money in college.

    0Reply
  • Paul Thompson
    Investor · Little Rock, AR · Member since 2015 · 130 posts · 119 votes
    7y

    Thanks for the tag @Mindy Jensen 

    @Cameron Dye you have gotten some incredible advice. I'd even say a master's class in what you should do. Very impressed you have the where with all to ask this question at such a young age. Why do I get the feeling in 10 years time we'll be asking you for advice ;)

    I'll actually be speaking at the local REIA in Ft. Smith in February. We'll be hosting a class on the following Saturday. Shoot me a private message and I'll provide you details. It will be nice to meet you in person if it works out you can attend either of those.

    The only idea I had that I didn't see other people suggest was serving as an AirBnB cohost. Something to think about when you're in Fayetteville as a side hustle. But if you're already being successful in e-commerce be careful splitting yourself in too many directions. Pick one side hustle you really like and focus. The superpower in the modern age is focus. There are so many shiny objects....

    I'd like to stay in touch and follow your progress

    2Reply
  • Cameron Dye
    OP
    Fort Smith, AR · Member since 2018 · 41 posts · 62 votes
    7y

    @Paul Thompson

    Hey Paul! Thanks the response. I will be attending the REI meetup and I look forward to meeting you. Airbnb would be cool, I've heard some people mention it on a few podcasts I've listened to. I'd love to attend the class as well and I'll be sure to ask about it at the meetup. Thanks again and looking forward to it!

    0Reply
  • Jon Davison
    Greenwood, IN. · Member since 2018 · 9 posts · 3 votes
    7y

    Looks like you are getting alot of GREAT advice here Cameron, good luck to you young man!

    I have 2 boys, ages 14 and 17 and they both are interested in RE investing and my 14 year old is Reading Rich Dad/Poor Dad for teens.

    0Reply
  • Billy Daniel
    Rental Property Investor · Russellville, AR · Member since 2014 · 688 posts · 509 votes
    5y

    @Cameron Dye

    Just curious if you're still going down the real estate path?

    0Reply
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