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College kid looking for some advice in Real Estate

13K views 58 replies 30 participants last post by  xxandyxx 
#1 ·
Well to start this off I am a student currently studying Urban Planning at Arizona State University and looking for some advice. I am beginning to realize that Urban Planning is not exactly what I want to do with my life and I am much more interested in real estate and buying and selling properties.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and over this past summer working downtown grew very fond of the city. I have always been interested in real estate and the buying and selling and development of cities and even just towns. I have realized this is what I want to do and was hoping that some of you here at the four would be willing to give some guidance. This forum has been an inspiration to me and seeing so many successful people make something of themselves makes me want to do the same.

Currently I plan to change my major to something more geared towards real estate and development, although I have not figured out exactly what as ASU does not offer an undergraduate degree for real estate specifically.

So here it is: If anyone here has any advice as to what to focus my studies on, opportunities to pursue, things I can learn outside of school on my own, or any information or advice you feel could be relevant or helpful to me it would be greatly appreciated. I hope to graduate from ASU and pursue a Masters degree in real estate from a school back in Chicago.

Finally, I plan to send email’s to a few of the commercial real estate firms in Chicago this week to try and obtain an internship for when I return for summer so any advice as to what to include in that email ex. Wording, topics, important things to touch on, etc. That would also be greatly appreciated.

Come on guys help a college kid out so he can be on the right path to maybe be as successful as you one day! Haha
Sincerely,

Charlie

p.s. Sorry this is so long and as some incentive for your time and advice if anyone is in Chicago over summer time and is downtown give me a shout and I can get you on the speed boat tour I work on for free just shoot me a p.m. Got to take care of the fellow L4Pers.
 
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#40 ·
Glad I found this thread! I'm only 18 and am looking about how to get into Real Estate especially being young. Lot of good information and advice in this thread to help me out.
 
#42 ·
I have always been interested in houses and commerical buildings, from designing them and now to selling them. I am going for master's in CE and ME, so I can build, design the house/property and sale them. So my profit margin just grew in size. I did not have any form or what to do in the real estate game. I emailed a few firms and asked general questions I had at the time and than went out on my own and got my real estate license. It was not hard at all, took me about two months, studied my tail feather off and went to take it. Been doing it for a year now, started at 19 and now 20. I must say it can be very rewarding! Considering I do urban planning for a few firms now, as well as help build and design them also.

I was nervous with my age starting out, yet this is what I wanted to do for a very long time. I researched as much as I could on my own and went out and did it. Figured that would be the best way, getting a few tips from some people who were willing to lend out their hand. Most were self fish and greedy as we all know the economy took a big hit and hurt a lot of us. (Now those people are looking at me to help them, some I do others not so much) So I put the age thing behind me, enlightned consumers with my wealth of knowledge, unique genuine self and have not looked back yet! I have a high self confidence level after going out on my own and just going for it. I had a plan for the start. Do not BS the people, be honest and shoot from the hip. I do not waste their time and they have been very nice by returning me to many other people. I say just go for it!

Take the exam, study as much as you can and go for it. If you have a natural talent for this. Than it will come very easy to you and you shall do fine :) Do not sweat the small stuff to much and go for the best!
 
#47 ·
Wow havent checked this in awhile and glad to see people building upon what I started! This is great info guys for younger people like us trying to get into the real estate world so again thank you everyone sharing expierences and opinions.

Go Getter- Great story and defineately something to think about when getting into house flipping and areas that are similar. It is awsome your rents helped you out with that and took the dive with you I hope you make more than enough one day to pay them back tenfold for helpin you out!



Congrats to you my friend it is really inspiring to hear about a young guy, like myself, going out and putting the work in to learn and make something of themselves so props to you!

I am currently in urban planning at school and to be perfectly honest the classes about it could not be more boring to me. I have gotten really into the real estate buying selling brokering of commercial property. I am also in a real estate class that is focused on residential and it interests me about a million times more than my planning classes. I do think however some of the things I have learned in planning will benefit me in real estate.

It is also nice to see another person with the same idea as far as doing business and people skills. Seems like so many people are worried about money these days and greedy they're not willing to help anyone else out. Ask anyone successful and it seems like they all have great networks with great relationships, and last time i checked you dont make those being greedy and not doing things for others. I've always said I dont ever want to do business with or have a potential client that I can't shake their hand and sit down and have lunch with or go shoot a round of golf with. Reality is your not going to have that close of a relationship with EVERY client or person you do business with, but I want to make as many positive connections, relationships, and even friends as possible and make sure our transaction is a positive one. I may be "old school" to a point but to me a phone call (or now a face to face chat call) will never substitute for meeting someone with a smile and firm handshake.

^ Let's network, 21 now, been in this since 19 as well.

Where are you located it?
x2 for both you guys? Any info or anything you guys want to share or network I'm in AZ now and Chicago in summers....21 now and getting into this full force. Pm me anything


On a sidenote I found out this week that I officially have a fulltime internship this summer at the biggest comercial real estate firm in the country! :drivingskid:
 
#44 ·
^ If I met the right people I'd like to get back into it. It's not a matter of if, but when.

I thought about real estate options where I can write an option on propery, then assign the contract to another investor, and make money on the deal without ever owning the property. Not very many books on the subject though.
 
#45 ·
Round of applause for many of you guys who share their true stories and live experiences with all of us.

Quick question, what happens if you've ruined your credit at a young age. How long would it take you to get back and actually have a chance to sit down with the banks and draw some numbers down again? Are there people that do this without dealing with the banks much? Or do most of RE business deal CLOSELY with the bank?
 
#46 ·
^ there are special companies out there that help with rehab financing. A nice option to flippers, but not many others.


Anyone here have experience in RE options ?
 
#56 ·
This thread absolutely delivers. I am also an ASU student looking to have a similar future. Small world. Lets all meet up, I gotta take advantage of some of the seemingly few motivated minds out here. Maybe we can get an Edson project/venture advisement/whatever thing going.



Sorry for reviving this old thread![/QUOTE]

Talk about small world...I'm at MCC (transferring to ASU when I get in-state tuition), also looking into getting into real estate. I'm 19, going on 20, so fairly young myself. Great information here!
 
#51 · (Edited)
I am 18, taking Real Estate classes at my Community College, currently only taking Appraisal right now as i got a late start on picking classes. Any advice, I can't really go out and start selling because I have no certification. But how, and what should I do? My neighbor is a RE agent, i haven't asked her anything because I don't know what questions to ask.

Should I go to a RE company and ask if i can tag along?

Also would love to buy and flip property but have no money (looking for a minimum job), and being 18 I believe it would be hard for me to purchase a house, (don't want to be in debt at 18)
 
#54 ·
Great thread! I'm also fairly young (20) and looking to buy my first property mid next year if I can pull it off financially.

Here in Australia real estate is still rather high side... Hopefully looking to catch the market as it's falling in 2012 and beyond, this would be ideal.

I did a year studying and working in construction, now I'm in finance and I make an effort to learn everything I possibly can in my spare time. Knowledge is the new money!

There's a lot of people in here with the ''I don't want to be in debt at this age'' statement... Guys I encourage you to hit up some research! Debt is your best tool.

Cheers
 
#55 ·
Yes very interesting thread but I seem to be seeing a few separate markets being discussed. I am by no means any real estate expert but I have good practical commercial real estate experience in the fact that I have personally purchased several commercial properties in my lifetime

let me first address flipping homes, and although it is a business, I do not consider that to be "commercial real estate" per-say.. for those new into the house flipping thing always remember to spend the least amount of money you can in fixing a house up, the other poster made the mistake of investing way too much money in their first house by enlarging a master bedroom and adding a new roof line and a new bathroom, which will cost you any profit you could possibly ever make. Your job it to spend as little as possible and flip the house. Let the new owners do those major renovations if they so feel it.. Just get it decorated and painted enough to sell it..

commercial real estate, this can refer to leases or actual property sales, and you need to pick one and do it well. I knew a guy that actually opened up his own management company and found a job leasing in a high rise building and all his leases cam from the high rise he managed. He banked on good leases and was able to make a bucket load of money all simply from one location.

then another guy I knew years ago was into commercial leases but he was a broker for commercial properties and worked his ass off. Always chasing leads and stuff. This was during my college days when I was going to college in the city. I worked at a restaurant because this fine ass girl I liked worked there and the cash was fun to party with but when I wasn't working I was running around with these real estate types.

so I have to suggest that you define the area of specialty you want and focus on it because there are so many areas inside real estate and so many sub categories even inside commercial real estate.

most of the commercial property I have purchased was raw undeveloped land, there have been a few exceptions where there were structures on them so even raw land is its own little niche market inside commercial real estate.

On a side note, back many years ago when I was in school taking drafting and architecture classes I found a mentor in a custom home builder who taught me a great deal about general architecture and why things were placed where they were, such as bathrooms not being off living rooms or near the gathering spots of the house (bathroom noises and smells)

then I hooked up with a major architect who had offices all over the country and his firm was a leading company and I was able to pick his brain a few times, and he too gave me bits of information on designing commercial property. for example this architect explained that in designing retail commercial spaces that you always had to help improve the value of the property by not only designing for the current client but giving them the extra options (if possible) to design for future clients of the same location. meaning that if you are being contracted to design something really cool for a client try to consider the area the structure is going into and what the zoning is and what best the structure would be used for if the original clients project failed, so you could market the structure easily to another client.

there were so many tips I picked up back then that I cannot even remember them all but they come back to me at the strangest of times.

I also learned the basics of auto cad so I could do my own designs and ask for digital copies of other designs to read and learn from.

Since I do not do commercial real estate for a living (its a hobby) there is no pressure for me to make money at it and therefore I enjoy it more and work at my own speed.

I actually enjoy doing the basic drawings (designs) of "projects" that I want to some day later develop, and in the mean time I just fine tune the designs

I have nice sized project I want to self develop but finding the proper city and the proper area is the tough part. Buying the land and developing it isn't the problem, having it work is a gamble, and having to relocate there is another factor I have to take under consideration.

good luck in your endeavors and always invest in raw land and sit on it.. they aint making more of it and its harder to find each passing day so the value goes up.
 
#57 · (Edited)
#58 ·
I talked to my neighbor and she said she wouldn't mind me going with her in a few house showings. So either when I start taking my actual real estate class I'll go with her.

Amazing thread I need to take more time starting on page 1 and reading everything. Thanks guys. (sorry of I hijacked this thread :( )
 
#59 ·
I am also a 20 year old college student looking to get involved with real estate and I have to say, this has been one of the most informative threads I've found on this! L4P members are very helpful people. Thank you all so much for shedding some light on all of this, reading this has really given me a lot of extremely helpful information. I've been having issues with my drive due to recent hardships, reading this and hearing these stories has restored that. I can feel it. Can't thank you guys enough for taking the time to help. I am a naturally driven, ambitious individual and only seek guidance and inspiration. As stated earlier, "This thread delivers."
 
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