Real Estate Course for Teenager

[Leeling Chew]

My 12th grade son just finished his SAT and he will have one month off from school in December. We are wondering if he should go ahead and sign up for a real estate course. Our family has a few rental properties but would like to invest more in the future. My son has interest in real estate investing as well but probably won't become an agent himself. Are there benefits for being an investor in the long run to have passed the real estate course? 

[Robin Simon]

I don't think an official "course" would be super-helpful vs. taking advantage of the resources here on BP such as the books and webinars and most of all, diving in and getting experience in the actual day-to-day of owning and managing the rental properties.

At the end of the day, real estate is all about the reps and experience "doing" rather than book learning, you will gain at least 10X the knowledge jumping in and learning to solve real problems

[Robin Simon]

I don't think an official "course" would be super-helpful vs. taking advantage of the resources here on BP such as the books and webinars and most of all, diving in and getting experience in the actual day-to-day of owning and managing the rental properties.

At the end of the day, real estate is all about the reps and experience "doing" rather than book learning, you will gain at least 10X the knowledge jumping in and learning to solve real problems

[Jacob St. Martin]

I would agree with Robin! I think an excellent place to start would be one of the BP webinars for beginners. If he finds that interesting he should read rich dad poor dad and rental property investing by brandon turner. Those books will help to develop the mindset needed to be successful in real estate as well as give a broad overview of different real estate investment tactics. During this time he should be spending at least a half an hour to an hour a day browsing zillow and analyzing deals to start building that muscle. Getting a real estate license is really only useful if you want to be an agent, which is not investing. However, if he is interested in being an agent that could be a good path to get immersed in the real estate world and to start building capital through commissions that can be placed into a property as soon as possible. 

[Scott E.]

I was a lot like your son. Right out of high school I got my real estate license. Never ended up using it though because I then got a job as a mortgage loan officer, and it was a conflict of interest.

My take is similar to the others in this thread. One thing is for sure - If your son wants to get into real estate investing, he needs to spend the next couple of years getting educated, learning the ropes, and picking a niche.

So I think he should spend the next few years reading books, listening to real estate podcasts, and browsing the BP forums.

But along with that, he should also get a job doing something related to real estate. He can become a real estate agent, work for a mortgage broker, work for a title company, or work for a general contractor. Just something to give him some more exposure to real estate while he's saving up money and learning more about what route he wants to take.

[Eliott Elias]

I am licensed and my only client is myself, I make 3% on everything I buy and sell and get access to the MLS at any time. Don't have to wait for a realtor to get back to me and can submit as many offers as i'd like

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Leeling Chew, I think its an excellent idea!

The real estate agent courses are background base information about real estate and real estate laws. Older adults may have some understand of much of this from their life experience but a 12th grader likely would not.

I think this is an excellent first step and one that shouldn't be skipped before moving on to other learning opportunities.