Time Frame for College/Career Suggestions

Hey, I just graduated high school.

So, first off, I am just absolutely fascinated by real estate, and wish to get into the real estate game of being a landlord and having rentals for passive income. However, because of that, I've had some people tell me in the past that I should consider Real Estate Private Equity. I think it would be cool to do that, but don't know if it's realistic at all, so I'm not tripping if I don't. If not that, I don't mind going for regular investment banking, even if it's a smaller regional role. But I do plan to save up money and try to house hack with FHA loans if possible and expand a portfolio over time and hoping I pass my real estate exams to get licensed before the end of the year. So take that tad bit of information on me as you wish.

Now, I want talk about what I should do during my college time, therefore having the AA and most junky prerequisites completed before I move, meaning I would have done 60/120 credit hours (even though I know they may not accept all of them). I do plan to major in finance, and hopefully get a decent-paying job from that, but I do not know whether I should go with finishing up 2 more years or spread out my classes across 4 years.

Some of my thoughts of that comparison are: If I complete my college in 2 years, that means that I'll officially be done with school and will have time to work and do real estate and not worry about school work, *maybe* be ahead by 2 years in investment banking, and get more real-world experience. But I don't know how that goes with investment banking recruiting, and am worried it'll hurt me. But if I complete my college over the span of 4 years, I'll still stay in-line with the investment banking recruiting timeline and stuff I think, and maybe be able to get more relevant experience if I have more time between my classes.

I really don't know what route to take and why I should take that. So I want to ask you all, what would you do if you were in my spot? I greatly appreciate all the help and look forward to all the comments and responses!

6 Comments
 

Talk to people. Get great grades. Be personable. Work hard. The rest will come

 

I was in a very similar situation to you when I was a freshmen. I really couldn’t decide between banking and real estate so I decided to get on calls with people from both industries, read this forum, and just did as much research as I could. Decided on real estate in the end after doing an internship and realizing how much I enjoyed it versus banking and at that point I knew what I wanted to do.

So if I were you, I’d network as much as I can and maybe try to get an internship in real estate. Investment sales is pretty easy to get an internship in, it doesn’t even have to be the big firms, a strong local firm will do fine. I did an unpaid internship at a local boutique during the height of covid and it really helped me out. Get on calls, send your resume out and you can probably land something.

REPE is also not out of the picture, you don’t have to land role right of college, plenty of people lateral from other areas of the industry. 

 
Most Helpful

First off, the Gators suck!!!!!! 

Second, UF actually has one of the strongest, most-established RE programs in the southeast, so you should def take some RE classes and maybe see if you can add as major/minor (this will still be a helpful add on for i-banking or general finance or whatever). Regardless, use the UF network as soon as you get there. Meet people, intern, etc. As others have said, learn as much about real estate as you can before you 'commit'. 

From a job perspective, I'd attempt to get a summer analyst gig at some top RE or banking firm, those are competitive and beyond me to know how you will rank. UF will be "target" for many SE shops, but far from it for the NYC/Chicago/LA shops, so regional focus is probably smart (that said, I'm sure some UF people get NYC gigs each year). From there.... just play it as it goes, there is no perfect path, people shift and change. If you want to do i-banking and land a legit gig out of UG, might as well take it, getting to real estate later won't be hard. If you get a legit RE gig and want to take it.... great, I doubt you will have regrets in all reality. 

 

Fellow Gator here. To set yourself up for success I’d pursue MSRE there. They essentially guarantee you a job. Most IB people at UF come from MSF and I think you’ve prob missed your boat on that program due to some prerequisite requirements (at least at UF). I’d focus on networking and getting experience this summer so you can get a better internship next summer that will lead to full time offer. Feel free to DM as well 🐊

 

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