Will I not be taken seriously if I dont go to college?

Question

Hi I am 19 and wanting to get in to the real estate investing path as a full time commitment and career, I want to start working towards the future now but I dont know if I should go to college or not. It seems that my time and money would be better spent going 100% into this and working hard over those years, but I'm worried that without a college degree or experience no one will take me seriously at all.

Any insight or opinions on this? Will lenders and banks look at college degrees to make decisions?

Aaron K. · Answer

Lenders and banks don't care about college, but they do care about income, if you can earn a good income from a day job without a college degree then go for it, if you don't see that as possible college may be the way to go for you.  Even if you don't go to a 4 year university a trade school may be a good option.

Kenneth Garrett · Answer

@Aaron K.

There are many benefits of attending college. Maturing as an adult, making invaluable connections, internships at strategic locations, etc.  I think college benefits you as a person and improves your critical thinking as well as written and verbal skills.  People don’t give a crap if you went to Harvard if you can’t execute a deal.  If I was going to go to college, I would major in finance or if there was a degree in real estate of some kind.  I did go to college and think it did help me in other ways.  If you are successful, no one asks where you went to college, they only care about how you put the deal together.  If you do go to college you need to be all in otherwise it will a waste of your time and money.

Isaac Pepper · Answer

@Connor Steck

Money makes people serious. Performance makes people serious. Education is not in question like when trying to get hired for a W-2 job.

If your only reason for considering college is to get people to take you seriously, there is no need for it. You need more reasons to start, and finish college than to get people to take you seriously.

Paul Shannon · Answer

@Connor Steck

As with anything in life, there are trade-offs.  The value of a college degree is coming into question lately, and for good reason.  With souring student debt and outrageous cost inflation for tuition, it makes you wonder what you could launch into without the burden of payments and interest right out of the gate.

My perspective would be to ask yourself what the ultimate goal is and work backwards from there.  Does that involve requiring a college degree?  If you want to be an investor, you need to make some income to invest.  If the job you seek requires a degree, get one.  Then work as hard as you can to move up the ladder, relocate, sacrifice, and save/invest.  It will be a grind, but if you can live frugal (that's important) and consistently invest your income, you can be a full time investor and retire off your income in 15-20 years, or faster.  People will take you seriously when they realize you bust your ass.

If you want real estate right here, right now, you can earn income from being a realtor or wholesaler.  I'd go the route of realtor and learn your market and how to sell yourself.  Educate out from there.  Being a realtor as a real estate investor is not required, but can provide a massive advantage if leveraged properly.

Never stop learning.

Chad Odonnell · Answer

College isn't important, but education is VERY important. You're only 19 and doesn't sound like you have any experience, so I'm going to assume you're lacking in education. The good news is, you're young, so you should have a lot of time, energy and drive. You need to exchange those attributes for education. Go find deals and when you find them bring them to someone that can educate you on what to do with the deals.

Scott Mac · Answer

You could ask Messrs. Gates, Zuckerberg or DeJoria.

David Richter · Answer

Hi @Connor Steck,If you want to dive into real estate as soon as possible, you need to provide massive value somewhere in the marketplace as quickly as you can. I would find someone who is where you want to be and offer to work with them for free to see what they are doing and to see if they'd be willing to partner with you on big deals after you provide a ton of value to them. This will give you connections and experience very quickly and the opportunity to get to your goal.

Robert Gilstrap · Answer

@Connor Steck I never went to college but what I can tell you is that out of the hundreds of college graduates I have hired over the years only 2 actually worked in the field of their degree so that entire education was wasted in my opinion. People with law degrees who worked as property managers, sports medicine degrees who were salespeople, finance degrees who cleaned houses for me, etc.

By the way did I mention they all worked for me, the guy who didn't go to college? I make FAR more $$ than they do because making money is not about degrees its about drive, perseverance, self education, taking risks, etc.

Nobody in the real world cares if you have a degree, an employer cares about what can you do to make/save him money, thats it.

Steve Morris · Answer

"I'm worried that without a college degree or experience no one will take me seriously at all."

Puh-leeze, if you're relying on a degree to give you gravitas, you'll never have it.

Know plenty of guys without college degrees and pretty good portfolios.

I'd focus on raising money and learning to ask the right questions.

David Vitarelli · Answer

@Connor Steck I wish I would have received more guidance from my trusted peers when I was planning for the future. With that, let me impart my personal opinion. Simply put, college is terrific, but, in some cases not necessary. I believe that people decide what they want to do "for the rest of their lives" at different points in their life. I think that the majority of 18 year old's are not equipped to make such a decision at such a young age. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to decide what to go to college for. Too many times, I have heard of, or seen, friends drop out, change majors or complete a major only to realize that later down the road, they detest their profession.

To be clear, I am not advocating that you should not go to college...I am merely conveying my observation, which is that you may be in a position where you don't know, what you like and don't like. I DO think that ALWAYS pursuing higher education is necessary. Perhaps, you enroll in a secondary college and take your prerequisites WHILE, mentoring under a few local real estate investors, or maybe you should get a job at a local property management firm, or get your real estate license , or any other number of real estate related fields....this will give you the experience needed to make an informed decision. You can do BOTH at the same time.

I've never heard anyone say, "I hate that I have this degree"....I have heard many people say, "I wish I went to school for something different". Try to be that person that makes an educated decision before going all the way.

And finally, with regard to your concern to banks caring about your education level.....they don't. They care about income, credit worthiness, work history, period. Your pursuit of a higher education is a personal endeavor that will increase your personal development. But, even with it, it is up to you to put it to use.

Will I not be taken seriously if I dont go to college?

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