A major in finance will help you calculate your risk more efficiently, but plenty of people without a college education can buy if they understand location and value. If you are going to invest in real estate and don’t have a large amount of liquid cash, you’ll essentially be investing for the long haul. Find a home with positive cash flow: mortgage lower than the rental rate and hold it. Preferably a multi-unit, in a safe area. Live in one, rent the others out. If you do have some cash, find default and short sale properties at bargain prices and flip them. These can usually be bought 10-20% below market value. Instead of spending your money on real estate investing classes you might want to get your real estate license- you get paid to buy your own house (3% of the purchase price), you can run your own comps on properties and have access to knowledge most other investors don’t. Plus get in good with a loan officer who won’t lie to you. I happen to be one of those few honest ones. Good luck with the house hunting.

Taking a finance class to understand how to discount cash flows would be the only important thing you could learn from in doing real-estate investing. Most finance courses are about business finance, not real estate, but the fundemental concepts of cash flows are critical for either. Maybe just take one class and forget the rest. BTW, don’t prolong graduating either way…real estate will be poor for the next few years anyway.

You can never be over educated. I started of with degrees in th efood industries, then got a degree in communications. I never used the forr degree (I had 1 job for 6 weeks and found out I hated it) I am now a mortgage consultant for a bank.

What if you get hurt in the line of duty or you find out you **** what do you have to fall back on. In this buyers market, buying real eatate is a great way to invest.