Interested in real estate...but with dilemma

[poloski]

I am a junior in college in Mississippi majoring in Management of Construction and Land Development. My curriculum is closely correlated to the Real Estate major here and will be taking the classes necessary to obtain my license. Here is where it gets kinda foggy...I have an internship lined up with a local construction company 8-5 this summer. I am REALLY interested in rural land, especially large hunting/recreational tracts. I have heard of people working full-time jobs and then doing real estate part-time. I guess my question is first, could I work full-time and get my feet wet with rural real estate? I would think less time would be involved with strictly raw land than with selling houses. Next question, should I attempt to work with a real estate company this summer in addition to my summer internship with the construction company? I am no stranger to long hour work days and would even work with a real estate company for NO PAY just to learn the ropes. Should I consider contacting any local companies or are my eyes just bigger than my stomach? Thanks for your help.

[Sean McAlister]

Well this is right up my alley. I got my start in Real Estate 13 years ago in Raw Land. I was able to obtain 1000 acres dirt cheap.

I was working full time for a construction company, I was in sales.

It was hard but I was motivated. I would set my land tours up on the weekends or after work throughout the week.


Not soon after we sold the property I was able to quit my job and go into business for myself. As time went on we started some developments. Things were good and getting better.

It was not until I decided to start building houses that life got tougher. It easy to show property. You sell it and you are done. When you build... especially contract houses you are married to the client for a year or more depending on your service agreement.

To answer your question. I think that you should do both within your capacity. It is good to see both ends of the stick.

I have since tailored back on building. My company would average 30 residential homes per year as well as 2-3 commercial jobs. The grief and aggravation associated was not worth the return.

I am now focusing all of my efforts on raw land. There is a lot you can do with it...from timbering, to gas royalties, wet land's banking etc.

Pm me if you have questions

Good luck
Sean

[Wally]

Yes you can run a creative Real Estate investing business with a full time job.

I'm active duty Army and have been for 18 years. I have actually made deals from other countries over the phone and via email, of course I have been doing what I do in real estate for about 6 years now.

Currently I put in 12 - 14 hours a day five days a week and 4-6 hours on the weekend. I still find the time to run a my Lease Purchase business. I know I would not be able to run my business if I did fix and flips. And there's no way I could do developments with the constant posibility of me being pulled away for extended periods of time. But I don't have to worry about that in my Lease Purchase niche.

You can see a couple of my deals on my site below. But I've done several deals with only a few hours of my time and put cash in my pocket within hours of taking control of the property. I seldom buy, I mostly control.

You can do it as long as you know how to do it write. Don't spend hours on the phone or in front of clients, don't drive to a property until you have a commitment up front, don't suffer from premature presentation. All of these things are a huge waste of time and can be prevented if you know how.