RE Investing career strategy

[Sage Jankowitz]

I'm new to the RE investing world after spending most of my life in the film industry and I'm looking to make the switch. I just spoke with one of my mentors and he suggested I start off by targeting a good and relatively cheap up and coming neighborhood and become a RE agent. Then, when I begin to learn what makes a good deal in my targeted area I can begin searching for investors and go in with them. He said I ought to start small and look to make quick one year flips (for the lower capital gains tax) with properties that require only basic changes. After I have a couple of small flips under my belt and some investor backing he suggested I could scale up to bigger flips or move on to buy and holds.

Any thoughts or suggestions on this strategy? From previous threads I know some people are very wary of obtaining a RE license, but in this situation could it be a viable option?

[Vikram C.]

A flip that takes a year is not "quick." Furthermore, as Jason said, if you do this a lot it becomes income from a trade or business as opposed to LT capital gains. Finally, even if you got the LT cap gains treatment, it will be more profitable to do several flips in a year with the same capital and pay higher taxes than to underutilize your capital in order to save on taxes.