There is a direct correlation between attractiveness and money. In fact, one could reasonably argue there is causal feedback loop. IMO it seems to be stronger for women.

TS, tell us more about the Golden Circle?

The fact that you are asking this question tells me you have no experience in property management, much less the ownership side of real estate. Yet you have your mind made up that "What I want to do with my life is real estate investing (building a portfolio of rental property)". Think about that for a second. You are basing this decision on something you effectively know nothing about.

FWIW I had the exact same ambitions as you (build a rental property "empire" and live off the "passive" income - hint: it's not passive). I had some money saved up from the poker boom days and used it to buy a few rental properties. I got lucky and bought with a good basis, had some nice rent and price appreciation, and today have a nice bit of equity built up. However, what I did learn was that doing this was NOT what I wanted to do as a profession. Property management blows and tenants are a pain in the ass.

So I wouldn't necessarily discourage trying out real estate investing, but I wouldn't forego or sacrifice your choice of college because of it. Do it on the side for a few years and see if you like it. The odds that you (or anyone your age) will be doing what you think you'll be doing 30-40 years from now are slim to none. Have a bit of humility and realize this.

I would go the more efficient route and walk out of school debt free. I went to UF and it was quite costly. Now that I am deep into my career - looking back - it would have left me no benefit to get a degree from a more affordable school except the debt. I would be debt free, and wouldnt have to pay x amount of dollars overtime. However, 15k is not a lot of money and after you graduate (as long as you're financially responsible) you shouldnt have an issue maintaining payments and taking care of it.

Think long term. If the debt is your worry, then go the more efficient route by attending the more affordable school. At the end of the day, the school doesnt get you the job. You are the one that has to go out into the job market to position yourself to earn a lucrative position. I don't think the fancy private school will give you that; UF didn't do it for me.

Regardless, whichever route you choose, start building your network now. Be sure to take internships and build as much relevant work experience as you can. It will help you once you get out into the job market.

I mention the job market because having 2-3 years of consistent income will allow you to leverage money from banks to help you get into rentals and various other deals. Unless you're a cash buyer, it will be hard to obtain financing with no proof of income. Everyone wants to get into apartments and REO - its not easy, and you need cash flow to help you sustain during times you have vacancies and various other random expenses.

It is very lucrative once you get a portfolio foundation. Check out Grant Cardone - he has some great insight on the RE market.

Lot of good things to think about and consider ITT, thank you everyone who has given me different perspectives so far! It's funny bc I've posted this same question on Reddit and Wall Street Oasis with a solid seven responses between both, none of which have been very thought provoking.

2p2 is the best forum on the Internet and it's not close.
Is this a joke? It depends somewhat on the jurisdiction, but most laws are tenant friendly. It will take months and court action to evict a tenant who doesn't want to leave. In the meantime they get angry at you, threaten you, plead with you, damage your property out of spite. Someone loses their job, has a death of the breadwinner, develops a gambling or drinking or drug problem (common among all classes) develops a mental illness, is an *******, you can be in the hole for tens of thousands by the time you get them out of your house. It's why tenants are screened so carefully, but it's still just luck. And you're starting on the low end, since you have little capital, which means a lot more of this kind of ****.

Also, lolwtfbbq at the bolded. How do you get money out of someone who has no money? Take them to court? Then what? They still can't pay it. A court order is about as useful in getting money as serving them a strongly worded letter or some crayon on toilet paper. Even in bankruptcy, possession are protected. This is why debt goes for 3c on the dollar, you can't get blood out of a stone.

At the end of the day you have to be willing to be the **** who ruins a families life by putting a mother and kids on the street after a bad break. And you have to spend your small profits (most of which is going to the bank) doing it.

Tenant insurance covers some but it's still an expense and you'll have legal fees, etc. Then you have to repair damage, do upkeep, pay taxes for the period you weren't paid.
Yeah it sounds like OP has no clue what the world is like. Real estate investing without any real world sense of how the world works on isn't a great idea. If you don't have it by 18, good luck beating the low end norm in terrible RE experiences, but some people are late bloomers I guess. Sounds like OP is heading in the right direction at least.

OP: A good read for you, and some stats:

In 83 Million Eviction Records, a Sweeping and Intimate New Look at Housing in America



In some places fully 30% of houses end up having to go to court to get the tenants out. Around 1/3 of those are awarded eviction orders. In other places (mostly higher end, fewer undesirables), the rates are lower, but the laws are often more tenant friendly.

Being a landlord of lower end housing is a ****, **** job, and the ones that make money by doing as many unpleasant things as they can get away with, like racial discrimination, (not because they're racist; it's purely a numbers game, the same way you discriminate against drug addicts, because as an easily identifiable group their rates of default and damage are so much higher), hounding people, skimping on repairs, not doing things by the book.

But, it depends. You can make it pay for you in some places for a lot of work if the housing price/rates cycle goes right and you don't have a bad run. But there are much better ways to get wealthy and be your own man. Including just working a job an not doing anything on the side except stick it in an index fund.

Literally page one of the RE thread you guys told me to read:

Funny too bc I wrote my post before even reading that thread, and got the advice from a very successful RE investor. So, that's two different investors presumably from two different parts of the country saying the same thing. I wasn't suggesting a "strongly worded letter", I was saying have a lawyer start the eviction process, sue for back rent and accruals during the process. If they don't have the money then there is this thing called wage garnishment. Look obv I'm not a 20 year old RE investing expert, I'm sure there are a ton of them out there though. Learning is part of the process, no one is an expert the first time they start investing in any type of field. You're assumption that anyone who has become an expert in their field had that knowledge by the age of 18, let alone RE investors is what is "lolwtfbbq".

I don't expect you to be an expert but having a sense of how the world works is a sign you might do ok.

It's not a case of "she'll be sweet bro, just get the lawyer involved and sue for back rent!"...building a low end rental real estate portfolio is a ****, **** job for fairly low returns. Everyone talks it up while the market is going up for years, like post 2008. Anyone can be a genius with low rates and a bull market. It looks very attractive, you pretty much can't screw it up because it's always going up and the appreciation eats your failures. But real estate is a long game, and when things go bad, the big chunk of guys who go ass up you never hear about.

"Strongly worded letter" was mocking the idea that you think it's viable to sue broke people for back rent. It is just is not worth your time or effort. Again, enforceable debt sells for cents on the dollar to collection agencies. Why do you think that is? You can't get blood out of a stone.

Also, I met with an adviser at NKU today (I've also met with one from X) as I'm just trying to get as much info on the decision as possible and found out that at NKU I could graduate early in the Fall of 2019, and I'm more than likely going to receive a $2500/year scholarship. Basically putting another $3,750 in my pocket. I'm not sure exactly how much of a difference this makes but graduating early is certainly something to consider as it would be impressive to prospective employers and would mean I could start working sooner. Maybe this isn't that big of an advantage over the long run though as a lot of people ITT and real life are telling me X's advantage is connections more than anything.

There is also the possibility that some of the scholarships I've been applying to over the last couple of months come through and bring either my cost of tuition at X closer to 0 ($0 in debt I mean) or putting more more money in my pocket at NKU. So, I guess the real question is how much money does it take to graduate with before it becomes more valuable than these connections? Like say I walk out with $35-40K does that make a difference? Even if we forget the RE narrative and say I just put the money in an index fund or BRK?

And how much value is it to graduate early? Besides the obv few months of actual pay, would an employer that might normally toss my app to the side take a double look?

In Cincinnati, where OP's rental properties are going to be, the laws aren't particularly tenant friendly. But all that means is that the eviction process will move at a rapid pace. It doesn't mean he's going to be able to collect anything from someone who doesn't have any money. That's why you start the eviction process immediately... Because every day you wait is a day of lost revenue on the unit.

I take a more charitable view. I think that RE is like most mature industries in that the top 5% of operators stacked by competence take home 85% of the total profits. They also generally do at least half of the gross sales and sometimes more. At least that's how my business works. If the OP wants to be one of those top 5% operators he's going to need to take his trade seriously... but it's not close to impossible.

It depends on the nature of the job but I doubt it’s ever a significant factor.

If you’re doing extra courses per term your grades will likely suffer though, not to mention the added stress and less time to enjoy the undergrad experience.

I mean it's basically take one extra class for two out of the three semesters I would have remaining or go a fourth semester for only two classes. Besides the two classes are just elective classes and I can pick any two classes to fill them. Given this I could take two of the easiest possible bs classes I can find just to boost my GPA and to not add any real extra stress.

Even the easiest courses take time that you could be using towards something else especially if you want to get high grades. 7 exams within a two week time frame is pretty rough no matter what. As easy as the bs courses are they generally require a lot of memorizing acronyms, dates, names etc.

To take useless courses just to get out a bit earlier seems like a waste of time money and effort. If you're that concerned about starting work early you could probably start working full time before you graduate and complete the remainder part time which has the added benefit of letting you feel out which upper year courses might be useful to progress in whatever company hires you.

Pretty much this. You are going to take a massive hit and squeeze very little profit, if any, from renting out property.

As an example, I remodeled an apartment in a 4plex for a client. He kicked out the crack dealers, opened up a neighborhood watch, and along with his neighbors, managed to convert a really bad neighborhood into a high end one. When I finished, he put the place up for rent at $3k per month. Later that day, a woman drove up in a Audi and payed cash to move in.

He told me straight out that he would never earn a penny on this and just planned to sell it. Yes, this is Los Angeles, Beverly Hills adjacent. Yes, the guy was a minor celebrity and loaded.

To put it into perspective, this is a 6x increase in rental income. If you buy and stay about even, you hurt worse. Even if you end up with perfect people with great credit, life can happen and you end up with an eviction or someone who can't scrape rent. It only takes a hospital visit, a car wreck, or major job loss for a good tenant to fall behind.

It's only six classes for two of the three semesters not seven, I've taken six classes in a semester before it wasn't that big of a deal for me. The problem with waiting and taking the extra semester for only two classes is that that will only be six credit hours for that semester. This will make me ineligible for any scholarship money I receive. I also won't be able to take out the financial aid loans, which though I don't need them if I go to NKU I might as well take advantage of them since interest is deferred until six months after graduation. I'll take the interest differed loans and pay them off when the six months comes up before the interest kicks in.

Not to mention that if I get a job making $40-50K that's a good $10-15K opportunity cost for the 4-5 months of working I could have already been doing...Plus it's that much time less that I would have to work at my s***** part time job, which is priceless.

I got bored and saw everyone bashing real estate so I thought I would do some math:

down payment
$100,000.00

debt
$400,000.00

interest rate
5%

annual (taxes, maintenance, insurance)
$1,500.00 + $5,000.00 + $5,000.00
=$11,500

annual revenue
12 * 4 * $1,000.00
=$48,000.00

-------------------------------------------------------------

annual opportunity cost of capital
$5,000.00

annual debt service
$25,767.48

-------------------------------------------------------------

profit = revenues - expenses
$48,000.00 - ($25,767.48 + $5,000.00 + $11,500)
=$5,732.52

after tax profit
$4,872.64

-------------------------------------------------------------

after tax return on capital
4.87%


Conclusion:
Calculated return is almost exactly equal to the assumed rate. Which is interesting and implies a rather efficient market.

The analysis ignores any labor on the property owner's part and implies an economic loss if the work is outsourced.

But, this ignores the fact that the owner is accumulating equity as time elapses.

So, the real estate bashers were not too far off. If you have to go to court 30% of the time, even including your accrued equity, I think there are better things to do with ones time and money.

But, at a certain point, real estate makes sense for a portfolio...for other reasons.

Those numbers are totally useless. But considering the source, good effort!

NB: No one is buying a place with .8% monthly revenue/price of property. Also your expenses are horrendous. 50% of revenue (assuming a reasonable revenue multiple that isn't dumb) is accurate.

Yeah... real estate investing as you're describing it doesn't work all that well. TS is 100% right about the yields being low and the risk being high. The management company is far from free. That's why most big real estate companies are first and foremost property managers lol.

Unfortunately I think TS's assessment of you is pretty fair after closely reading this post.

You need to be more imaginative. You have very close to no chance of getting a real job in finance out of school even if you go to X. I hate to be the bearer of bad news on that, but you aren't going to be a big Wall Street trader. The ship sailed on that when you went to community college instead of a target school. This doesn't mean you aren't going to be a success in life, but you need to open yourself up to opportunities that are less prestigious. You're a lot more likely to be a concrete mogul than to ever work at a major hedge fund in any capacity.

.

LOL, you are such a dumb@ss and always a naysayer. Tell us, what makes those numbers useless?

The down payment could be a little higher or a lot lower (in percentage terms) and the amortization schedule could be different, this is a 30 year fixed.

But overall, it is an excellent representation of numbers in my market.

Bro, stay away from these "debbie downers."

You can create the life you want for yourself by taking the right amount of action each day. You want to be in RE? Get out there and start grinding and learning. You're going to fail, however you will learn. Failure is a part of success, and taking what you learn to the next level.

Never take advice from people who are not at the level you want to be.

These guys dissing the market, and mentioning how you wont become a wall street trader sound like the type of people of gave up on their dreams a long time ago. Stay away from they.

4K a month on a 500k property is way above average even without factoring in lost rent from tenants in default. Glossing over the time demands is also misleading ... many hours will be put in not to mention transaction costs.

You’d basically be buying yourself a poorly paid job.

How do you "grind" real estate when you have no money? Sim City? Buy a tamogotchi and practice feeding it?
What level are you at? So we can judge whether we should take your advice on taking advice.
BoredSocial successfully has his own freight brokerage business. I travel the world while trading derivatives and choose my own hours. I got here to begin with by growing two small businesses. Sounds like exactly the kind of people he should be taking advice from, no?

OP is muleheaded and cocksure. Debbie downers aren't bad for a person like that, it gives them new ideas and new ways of looking at things and if anything sharpens their resolve. Not everyone is a special snowflake who wilts unless they hear motivational words...human psychology varies, bro.

I was anticipating a triggered response like yours. Ride along on your high horse bro, you got it all figured out and cant seem to emphasize with a young gun like OP who has a lot to learn. He is just getting started. He clearly has a lot to learn and is lost.

What do I mean by grind with no money? Grind as in get a RE license and start selling houses and learn more about real estate and varying markets while making money; until you can save up enough to position yourself to become an investor like he dreams to be.

Being critical and saying he cant achieve something based off an internet thread is shallow and judgemental.

You travel and own multiple businesses? That's excellent. I am happy for your success. I too hope to own my own business. Until then, I am grinding as an International Sales executive traveling throughout Central America forging relationships with distributors and retailers within my market. Making damn good money and saving up for future plays.

We all have different paths in life and no one has all the answers. All I'm saying is try to emphasize with a kid who was just like us stepping into the real world dealing with cross roads. The fact that he is even considering a more affordable school rather than just racking up debt like the majority of todays students shows some kind of intellect.