Advice for a beginner, special circumstances

[Matthew Buaas]

Hi everyone, my name is Matthew. I’m a 26 year old, done well in the stock market with the covid crash but want to get into real estate. I’ve been learning about real estate investing for a few months now and have reached out to a few people for tips and companies about pre-approval financing. 

My goal is to buy my first property by July 2022, preferably a multi family property or a bundle of single units. I want a Property manager, to avoid the landlord hassle.

The thing that is unique with my case is, I have been living in Japan for the past 2.5 years. I work for big IT companies, making a decent salary around 70k USD, and got married to a non-Japanese and now having a kid here. Trying to live best we can under the circumstances. Relocation isn’t possible  for a while with the pregnancy and covid complications, but I didn’t want that to hold me back from starting my investment journey. 

As such, I don’t have W2’s for my main income, since it is in Japan paying Japanese taxes. I have around 55k US in investments I want to liquidate for a down payment and can save around 30-35k a year. 

I have done a course in real estate investing and met with realtors and veterans in the field. They are helping a ton, but wanted to check here to see other perspectives. 

Does anyone have tips for the financing aspect, either how to explain to banks/lenders, best to go with private lenders, etc? I am looking into making an LLC as well before purchasing a property, but not sure if I should get a loan through the LLC or just under my name for now.

Any help is greatly appreciated!