Whats up BP nation, my name is Sheldon James, I'm a junior in college, I live in Hattiesburg Mississippi, and Im ready to start investing in real estate. I have been learning about real estate investing for about 2 years now. I have listened to hundreds of BiggerPockets RealEstate podcasts, read tons of articles on BP, and watched lots of youtube videos about real estate from BP and others. I have been especially fascinated with wholesaling. I have been wanting to get into it for some time now but my analysis paralysis has held me back as I'm sure some of you have experienced. However lately I have come across several success stories of people killing it doing real estate wholesaling who are even younger than me and it has inspired me to dive in right now even though I'm young, and don't have everything figured out. I want to wholesale in my hometown of Hattiesburg MS. I know a lot about wholesaling from my research but I just need some direction. How should I start? Should I go to Home Depot and grab a bunch of bandit signs? Buy a direct mailing list and start sending out letters? Buy a cold calling list and start calling? or should I do all of the above? I have other more detailed questions about contracts too that are hard to find answers for online. Any help/advice y'all can give would be much appreciated and help me out a lot.

Wholesaling is a legally dubious activity in Mississippi although a lot of people are doing it. What I think is a better move for young investors is house-hacking especially in college towns like yours. In other words, buy a house as close to campus as is feasible. Finance it with a FHA kiddie condo loan. Your parents will need to cosign on this but you will only have to put 3 1/2% down. Live in one of the bedrooms and rent out the other ones. Alternately buy a duplex, triplex or fourplex with the same kind of loan. Live in one unit, rent out the rest. I think you'll find it just might finance the rest of your college education.

Susan makes a great suggestion to house hack, especially being in a college town. I have looked in Hattiesburg and you can find some great deals that would allow you to live payment-free and give you some cash flow. My suggestion for wholesaling is drive-for-dollars and cold calling. You can't beat getting leads while driving around and learning the area, download an app like LandGlide or similar to get information while you drive, then skip trace and cold call owners. Don't over-complicate it. Then as you get deals flowing you can expand to ways to get inbound leads.