It was Thanksgiving of 2016 when I was sitting on the couch talking with a great friend and mentor of mine. I told her my ambitions of becoming a real estate investor and owning properties. I spoke of my dreams of flipping houses and managing rentals around the country. She didn’t know this was a dream of mine, and neither did most of my family. Being a real estate investor was something that was always on my mind, but I never spoke of it much. I was always encouraged to take jobs where you’re guaranteed paychecks, which isn’t bad advice. I just always dreamed of getting into real estate on the side, and maybe one day, making a career out of it.

The biggest challenge with my goal was that I didn’t know where to begin. As a college student, I didn’t have enough cash on hand to buy a property. Even if I did, I would have no clue where to begin. I was looking to take the first step in my dream of becoming a real estate investor; for me, that first step consisted of me getting my real estate license.

I realized that getting my real estate license would be a great first step to learning how real estate transactions worked, and to understanding how the real estate market works as a whole. Being a real estate agent would also be a great way to make contacts with lenders, handymen and clients in general. I figured there was a lot that I could learn from being a real estate agent, so I signed up for the classes.

To get your real estate license, you need to take 120 hours of pre-licensing classes. To be completely honest, I don’t care how much you love real estate, those classes can get very boring and very dull (I mean it’s 120 hours). Knowing that I would have very limited time during the school year to complete these classes, I dedicated my winter break to waking up at 7:30 am and going to real estate class for 10 hours.

After taking the classes, you then schedule an exam, which consists of both a state and a national portion. The exam as a whole takes about three hours to complete and consists of over 160 questions about real estate. After a couple of attempts, I finally passed my exam a few weeks ago and became a licensed real estate salesperson in the state of Ohio.

Becoming a real estate investor is a dream of mine. Being only 20 years old, it may seem silly to get your real estate license; I mean who wants to buy their house from a 20-year-old? It definitely will be a challenge for me going forward, but I feel that if I can provide quality service and get the job done right, people won’t care how old I am.