If you want to make a lot of money while you’re still in high school, the answer is real estate wholesaling.

Wholesaling is a great way to make money in real estate, learn the business, take little risk, with minimum money out of pocket.

Here’s what you do: Drive around, walk, ride your bike, and look for distressed properties in your area. A distressed property might look like it needs a new roof. It might be run down and the grass on the front lawn is a foot tall and looks like it never gets mowed. It may look like there’s nobody living there at all. Maybe it’s been boarded up by the town. Even in the nicest towns, it’s common to find houses that are in rough shape.

When you find a house that looks like it fits the description above, write down the address. Back at home, hop on Google and search for “free skip tracing software”. Skip tracing programs allow you to find people’s names and contact information by searching the street address of a house. After you have their phone number, call them. It’s likely that they’re not going to want to talk to you the first time you call, they might even be rude about it. You might have to call 20 times before they’ll finally listen. But if you’re persistent, you’ll eventually find someone who wants to sell their distressed property.

When you find someone who is willing to sell, you’ll need the help of a real estate attorney. The attorney will draft a contract of sale that contains an “assignment clause”. An assignment clause allows the purchase of the house to be taken over by anyone you choose.  That person (usually an investor) comes to the closing and closes in your place with their money.  The wholesaler receives a fee at closing for putting the deal together.

Where do you find investors to wholesale properties to? You’ll want to use social media and other marketing tactics to build up relationships with a group of investors who are looking for these type of deals. You should build a network of different investors, because different investors are looking for different kinds of deals, and you never know what opportunities will present themselves to you while you’re out searching.