How to Invest in Real Estate WHILE in College (It’s Possible!)

BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

BiggerPockets

Education, Business, Investing

4.8 • 16.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Think you’re too young to start buying rentals and building wealth? You’re not! If you want to know how to invest in real estate while in college, or in your 20s, Daniel Kaplan has the blueprint. In three years, he went from having just $10,000 to his name to owning 99 rental units (and counting)! As a college sophomore, Daniel bought a rental property for less than $50,000 (yes, really!). Then, he used the Section 8 investing strategy to mitigate his risk, earn consistent rent checks, and lock in over $600 in monthly cash flow. This first investment was a home run, but as you’re about to find out, it was just the first of many deals for Daniel. Today, he’s closing in on 100 total units! Recently graduated, Daniel now uses wholesale real estate to help fund his investments and has a large real estate portfolio that spans three completely different markets—all because he took action with his limited money and resources. In this episode, you’ll learn how to do the same, no matter your age, experience, or season of life! In This Episode We Cover How to invest in real estate in your 20s (even as a college student) How Daniel went from having $10,000 in savings to owning 99 units in just three years Real estate side hustles you can use to fund your next investment How to create consistent cash flow with the Section 8 investing model Common home renovation mistakes that could cost you thousands And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1189 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Can you invest in real estate while in college?
0:03.0	It is possible, and it can give you a head start on the compounding returns that make investing in rental properties so powerful in the long run.
0:11.0	But you need to start your investing journey on the right foot and overcome some very common challenges.
0:18.0	Because if you're anything like me during college, you don't have a lot of
0:21.2	cash sitting around. And most people aren't really eager to lend you their money. So today we're
0:26.7	talking about the right way to invest during your college years. So you graduate with a head
0:31.5	start on achieving financial freedom instead of an anchor weighing you down.
0:40.8	Hey, everyone. freedom instead of an anchor weighing you down. Hey everyone, I'm Dave Meyer, head of real estate investing at Bigger Pockets, and on this show,
0:45.8	we teach you how to achieve financial freedom through real estate.
0:49.4	Today, we're talking about investing in real estate during college. And my guest on the show is investor
0:55.3	Daniel Kaplan from Chicago. Daniel graduated from the University of Wisconsin just a couple of months ago,
1:01.3	but he has already built a sizable and very profitable portfolio of properties while he was
1:06.9	living in a frat house. Daniel is going to share with us his own journey from real estate education to buying his
1:13.5	first deal to scaling up within just a couple of years.
1:17.2	And he's going to explain how he overcame those common hurdles any college student who
1:23.6	wants to invest is going to face.
1:26.4	Those of course, including accumulating starting capital,
1:29.5	but also things like finding financing and building a team who's going to take a college kid
1:34.9	with big ambitions seriously. Daniel has a really cool, impressive story and is going to share
1:41.0	great advice for those of you in a similar situation during school
1:44.4	or really for anyone early in their investing journey. Let's bring them on. Daniel, welcome to the
1:50.8	Bigger Pockets podcast. Thanks for being here. Oh yeah. Very excited to be here. I appreciate it,
	...

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