Majors in Real Estate?

Question

Just wanted to make a thread to see if anyone has any suggestions for majors involving Real Estate. I was thinking about majoring in Finance and Statistics, but was curious if anything else would relate better to Real Estate.

TIA for any responses and have a great day!

Tyler Rasmussen · Answer

I would recommend going to college and getting a major where you have the potential of a higher paying job, with your ultimate goal of being a RE investor. I went to Iowa State and got my engineering degree. That allowed me to have a solid W2 income while growing my investments. Now I live in North East Iowa, own and manage a property management company, own 30 properties, while still having my W2 income to continue building up my war chest. In a year or two, I'll have the option to continue working at my W2, 'retire' and just do my RE stuff, or 'retire' fully and spend all my time with my family. But I wouldn't have been able to get here without the W2 income to support banks giving me loans, and the ability to ride the ups and downs of the business.

Sam Giberti · Answer

I'm attending the University of Tampa in a couple of months and I'm majoring in "International Business & Entrepreneurship". What I'm hoping to learn is a broad understanding of the economy as a whole and an in depth learning of starting and running a business, which hopefully I can apply to my REI in the future. It's truly a shame that colleges don't offer any real estate courses given its billion dollar industry, I'm going for the experience, won't be in much debt (doing well in high school), and plan to start my own business while taking classes & having fun ;). Hope this helped in some way lol, but thought I'd share what I'm doing.

Account Closed · Answer

@Isaiah Moore major in something that will pay the most. There’s nothing you’re going to learn in school that will help you invest. College will teach you about money, but not how to make it. Major in STEM and use that money from your job to save and invest.

Account Closed · Answer

@Isaiah Moore I would say chase the business mindset over the technical skill set. You don't need an accounting degree to run numbers. Go learn principles of sales and learn how to use procedure to establish and operate a business.

Matt Fisher · Answer

From a strictly financial point of view, take if from a guy with an advanced degree: Don't go to college for anything unless it meets 2 criteria-1.) the degree is essential to be employed in a field that will 2.) provide you with a substantial salary very quickly or immediately upon graduation.

The best means of education are now at our fingertips, not in institutions of higher learning.  If you can learn it without paying for it, that's the way to go.  Not only do they charge you for superflous classes, but there is also the opportunity cost of your earnings at the most critical point in your life!  Everyone talks about college debt, but nobody is speaking about the additional opportunity cost AND the compounding value of the dollar!  Arguably the most valuable dollar you make is the very first one-it it's used as an asset and not spent.  The cost of college is substantially more than the debt.

From a more practical point of view, college can help a young person build essential skills, such as the ability to write clearly and concisely and reinforce motivation and determination.  Although I'm largely 'anti-college' I do think that young people, especially our current crop of young people, need these skills badly.  And there is a certain level of reputation building that comes with a degree (eg to lenders).

...And as others have said, college isn't necessary to learn about RE, although there may be some programs out there.  This forum could teach you sooooo much more!  Entrepreneurial programs and groups within our colleges may be a good opportunity for budding business owners, however.

Tech schools offer a great bang for the buck.  Why spent a half million dollars and 10 years of school to be an MD?  A lineman can go to school for a (year?) and come out making close to $100k a year!  If that individual was frugal and bought assets, they'd be making way more than an MD before the MD became a resident!

Matt

Tyler Weaver · Answer

@Isaiah Moore I will take the opposing view. My degree is in both Finance and Real estate (you choose 2 focuses at my school). At the beginning my business it did not have much to do with my education. As we are scaling up, getting into larger projects and multiple projects at the same time, my education is coming into play. I believe it has caused me less pause with expansion.

If your goal is to buy enough single family homes from a high paying job to eventually replace your earnings it probably will not matter as much. If you have bigger aspirations then it could be a good boost.

Tyler Rasmussen · Answer

@Isaiah Moore

Nothing I learned in college made my RE career. I know there's advice both ways, but I thought it was very beneficial to get my RE license then eventually my brokers license. So that's one thing I wish I would have done earlier.

Frank Wong · Answer

Boom! Right there guys. Write this down. What great advice by Tyler.  There is nothing really taught in college that will help give you an edge or prepare you for RE investing. No major in RE will be applicable.

#1 thing you need is MONEY.  People always forget that. NO MONEY = NO INVESTMENTS. Don't believe this I bought with no money down and scaled with $10k stories.  I am not saying these people are lying what I am saying is these are the low low exceptions to the norm.  I play high probability plays not these fantasy dream scenarios.

Isaiah Moore · Answer

I feel the same way. I really wish that schools offered programs that catered more specifically to students interested in RE. I just thought since financing deals is such a major part of buy and hold investing, and it's also just a fairly broad business major, so there should be enough information in there I can translate to my REI by majoring in finance. I would consider trying to get a job right out of H.S. in the Real Estate field, but am in a similar scenario where I shouldn't need much, if any, debt to graduate, and could definitely benefit from the w-2 income, especially as I start out investing. I hope to get started in some sort of business while in college as well. Does what you plan on doing while in college have any relation to RE?

Isaiah Moore · Answer

@Tyler Weaver

Nice to hear a perspective from the other side. My initial plan is be able to get enough income to live off of, however I do think I could potentially work on a larger scale if I got really into it. Maybe I will try minoring in finance, that way I will have at least some experience Incase I try to go larger scale in the future, plus I’m sure the classes would just be interesting for me regardless. Though not majoring in finance or real estate could slow me down, having a 6-figure job aside from real estate would also help me get a much quicker start. Definitely no exact right or wrong answer, I’ll just have to see what classes I truly enjoy and am passionate about and go from there.

Majors in Real Estate?

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