University, choosing something to study.

[Ubbens]

Good evening,

As you could probably have seen from the amount of posts on my account, I'm new here, so hello everybody.
Now, first of all, please allow me to write some sort of background story regarding my interest in real-estate investments.

Currently I'm 17 years old, which might not seem a lot to most of the people here, probably because it really isn't.
It all started when I got more and more interested in houses and architecture, both interior and exterior. My initial plans were to become an architecture,
but since money does play a significant role in my life, being an architecture wouldn't quite satisfy my needs.
That is when I started investigating real-estate investing, reading through page after page of stories such as the Candy&Candy story, one of my personal favorites. The more I read about the subject the more I wanted to know about it. A few months ago I started buying books for my research, books about real-estate but also general economics.
Right now my plan is to first study, find a decent job, buy my first real property with a mortgage, improve, sell for profit. Repeating the last few steps several times until I can stop with my job and start doing real-estate investing full-time.
I realize money doesn't come by itself though, and that hard work is required to really earn good cash in this business, but I'm more than willing to do this.

As to the question, since I'm 17 years old it's getting relatively close to the point I have to go to university, problem is I have no idea what would be best in my case.
I'm looking for something which will get me a nice job at first, but also adds to my knowledge about real-estate. I was hoping you'd might have some suggestions in my case.

Cheers,
Bas

[Jeremy1113]

As a Junior in College myself. To answer you question if you really want to go to college to get a job to start real estate id prolly recommend taking account and learning these types of laws. cause in high school , i know they dont teach anything about real estate.
But honestly that was gona be my plan until i figured out how to make income to start investing in real estate without having to go to college and getting a good job and then saving to invest.
WholeSaling and/or Lease optioning , i realized that you can do these with absolutely no money or very little money to make a good $5k really quickly.
Im thinking about dropping out of college to learn more about these topics, cause im wasting money going to college but they really dont teach you anything about real estate Investing, they might only teach you about getting a real estate JOB.
Im going to see if i can get a whole sale deal done by this summer if i can im going to convince my parents to let me drop out of college, cause for me college is point less cause i really want to be an Real estate invester and for that i have to read books and go to seminars, but college wont teach me any of that.
So thats my thoughts on this subject. Sorry didnt mean to write so much.

[Hansen3]

I don't know about you, but I don't see how college couldn't help you. Get a business degree, thats what real estate investing is all about. You can take classes in real estate or law that will supplement that degree. Plus what happens when you fail as a real estate investor or your credit goes down the hole? With a degree you will be able to get a job and be able to pull in a sizeable income. I understand if you fail you can get a fat welfare check from obama, but most of us on here don't want to rely on that. Plan for the worst. Anyways many people invest with a full time job, who says you can't do all your investing while also going to school?

[JakeRodgers]

If you just want a two year degree, there are tech colleges that offer Associates degress in real estate. I also know that there are a few 4 year schools that offer RE bachelors degrees as well.
What about urban planning? If I was going back for my bachelors degree, I'd definetely explore a degree in one of these two things. (I am thinking of going back to get the Associates degree in RE from a local tech college.)

[artyman1200]

I'd go with accounting, finance or real estate.  And don't listen to Jeremy, get your degree and get good grades, you have plenty of time to make money in real estate.  There are deals now and there will be deals five years from now.  I know it's hard, but try to focus exclusively on school for the time being and learn about real estate in your spare time.  It can be addictive so keep your priorities straight.

[Ubbens]

Heya

Yeah, only if I suddenly inherited 250 million dollars or something would it cause me to not go to university, getting a degree is absolutely one of my main priorities.
I myself was toying with the idea to either study business-science (did I properly translate that?) or go with business law instead. As you've said Artyman, especially while I'm still at secondary school but later as well, I'll have to learn about real-estate in my spare time. My father recently promised to give me a home-study real-estate, covering the economic, legal, practical and engineering part, which hopefully should prove to be quite interesting. I don't think it'll interfere with my current schoolwork too much either, currently I'm working about 15 - 30 minutes a day for school, providing me with enough spare time.
Anyways, thanks for the feedback so far, there's some nice advice here!

[Jeremy1113]

I'd go with accounting, finance or real estate.  And don't listen to Jeremy, get your degree and get good grades, you have plenty of time to make money in real estate.  There are deals now and there will be deals five years from now.  I know it's hard, but try to focus exclusively on school for the time being and learn about real estate in your spare time.  It can be addictive so keep your priorities straight.

Well Artman, i dont know if you have ever been to college or have any backround in investing. My advice is coming from the stand point of  being a student NOW, taking classes NOW, compared to real estate investing which i have attended many seminars read many books on. And my adivce was having done and am still doing both im saying classes in college only teaches you how to be a good employee , not how to be a good investor. So if your planning to be an investor im saying college wont teach you this and again i know this because i will be a junior this fall at a good University.
Also having talked to many millionare investors face to face through seminars i know that the market will not be the same as it is right now when you graduate college.
So basically it comes down to what you really want to do and college isnt for everyone. Many billionares are college dropout or have never been to college some barely finished high school(Robert Kiyosaki).And if youve read any of his books you will know that "going to school getting good grades" is something that is not useful anymore if you want to be wealthy . So unlike other people here i wouldnt say go to college and get good grades just becausing thats just not for everyone, and again it comes down to what you really want to persue in life.

[herbster]

OH common man. If you have an opertunity to go to a University take it. Once you've read more here you will see that 90% of being successful in Real Estate is MARKETING. Finance or Business would be nice to. If I could only do it over. Herbster

[Jeremy1113]

True, also i did stumble on this investing subject, when i was IN college and i was SOOO bored that for once i actaully went to the library to read one of robert kiyosaki's books that i was recommended to read, and now im here wanting to be an invester

[Hoosier4life2005]

Im going to college next year, just getting out of HS. I think im wise beyond my years though. I have a bit of advice...

College will get you rich. College teaches you how to work for somebody who knows how to get rich. So if your looking for a major that will teach you all the skills of some of the successful people like on this board, your very mistaken.

Your public library will have books that will teach you much more about actually making money YOURSELF than anything in college will do.

This is my advice, because this is what im doing.  Find the most IN DEMAND job there is in the country (which happens to be stuff in the medical field), and do something in that.  You can get a nursing license for about 1 - 1.5years of schooling, and make around 40K a year, not bad.

Save that money you made from your job (whatever you find) and use the information you got on your own, and make money.

[dr_white]

Robert Kiyosaki..  Don't get me started on that buffoon. I'll sum up quickly and then leave it at that. If you think you're gonna be rich like Robert Kiyosaki, you're gonna end up becoming a book salesman.

Anyways. Ubben, my honest suggestion would be to stick with the architecture. If you can work your way up to designing house plans for multi-million dollar houses, yea, you'll be right in the thick of real-estate. And on the upper end of it. You won't have to deal with crap piss poor renters (sorry all you landlords). You won't have to deal with weasly wholesale buyers (sorry all you house flippers). You won't have to deal with bitter, pissy defaulters (sorry all you short-salers). You'll be able to deal with pissy, stuck-up, snotty rich people!  But, boy will they pay you a pretty penny to design their houses.
If you think you might be interested in starting up your own business, a house design business would be excellent. You already seem to have some initial interest in that. Now, add in some business management classes, start networking with luxury home contractors, partner up with other students in your architecture classes, bring those all together when you graduate and start your own luxury home design business. Not bad, huh?
As an addition to any of that, DEFINATELY take some business law classes. No matter what area of real-estate you get into, business law classes have something of value for any of it. Also, as others have said, accounting will be valuable for keeping your books. The IRS doesn't care one spit how smart you think you are; they only care about accurate and precise bookkeeping. Marketing will be extremely valuable if you plan on selling real-estate. Selling real-estate is part of the investing, right? *heavy sarcasm* And consider some communication classes. In real-estate investing, there is a very high chance that you will be interacting with people of all types. You will be required to effectively communicate with them. *more heavy sarcasm* Plus, if you plan on getting other (strangers) to give you money to fund your real-estate deals, you'll need to be able to put together convincing, and justified, business plans.

 Dean

[furnishedowner]

Ubbens, (and Hoosier, too)

Our daughter just graduated from university last Saturday with a business degree. So I have been looking at her books and I am soooo jealous, I would have loved that course of study if I had found it sooner.

She took an upper-level course on "Entrepreneurship". The textbook is fascinating. Reading it just makes you want to go right out and START SOMETHING, INVENT SOMETHING, SELL SOMETHING!

She can talk the language of business. She knows the accounting terms, the sales terms, the investment terms. She knows how to calculate profit in a multitude of ways. All kinds of doors are open to her. You can do the same if you go to college. College is a shortcut to learning how to get some wealth and have a rewarding life.

When I went to apply for my first business loan I was asked for a copy of my business plan. I had never even heard of a "business plan".  So I just answered, "My plan is buy it,  fix it,  furnish it,  rent it." I didn't get that loan, or the next one either. But I did eventually learn to put together a financial statement. Those business classes would have helped a lot.

You young entrepreneurs are miles above your peers already, just by asking for advice on this site. Take those business and real estate classes. And good luck.

Furnishedowner

[lisab4748]

Hello,

If I could add my 2 cents. A college degree may or may not be what you need to pursue a career in real estate investing. Although experience is what you truly need, REAL real estate education is also key, especially at your young age. As others have commented, there are plenty of real estate gurus out there who offer their "education" via weekend seminars etc and mail-order courses. I would never recommend them, (although some of their books are great.) But I want you to know that there IS real education out there!! There is a college that specializes in courses such as "tax and legal strategies," "subject-to," "wholesaling" and about 40 more courses. This year, the school was nominated for accreditation status as well. I'm planning on attending for the first time this summer; if you'd like more info I'd be happy to give you more.

Lisa

[justin0419]

Hey Lisa.  Is it Noveau Riche?  I think I've heard that about them.

[StephanieLynBaker]

I'm 21 and I graduated High School when I was 16...I home schooled myself from 7Th grade until 12Th and graduated with 4.2 GPA.

I actually didn't go to college just because I wanted to study Real Estate Investment 100% of the time and I knew that I wouldn't have learned any technical/street smart necessaries to become successful in REI in college. I thought that it would deter my focus.

However if I was in the position again, (and really I still can) I would have got my MBA business/finance.

I don't know if I would recommend my route to someone else. Because of my lack of college degree, I don't have a great job. All I have going for me is a long term Front Desk job that allows me to study study study during our business downtime in the evening hours. Me = getting paid to read 

I am not disappointed that I didn't go to college, I'm certainly intelligent enough, I just believe that I'm extremely independent, self-disciplined and have a lot of experience 'teaching' myself what I need to learn to be successful that I am saving myself and my family a lot of money by not going to college. I will find and self-educate myself everything I will need to be successful and if I choose to pursue a more 'hands-on business' career I can move up within my company to earn more money, but I choose not to because it will take away the time I have to study. Also with a not so great paying job, I have to live highly below my means and work long hours in order to save money. It has it's pros and cons.

My advice to you being so young, is to definitely go to college and definitely study business related such as finance/accounting or business management. You have plenty of years for investing after you graduate!