Thread: College kid looking for some advice in Real Estate

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)

NITEMARET, it would be awesome if you could share your story on how you scored that internship!

Looking foward to more replies. Good thread

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

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.

Originally Posted by Motorcade

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.

[email]

Sorry for reviving this old thread!

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!

good threads with great information never die.. they just need an occasional bump with more information to keep them going

here is a helpful article on home values and to those who are interested in flipping homes pay close attention to these types of articles as they can be very informative and helpful.

http://money.msn.com/home-loans/weir...es-weston.aspx

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 )

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."