New REI looking to BRRR - keep saving cash or get HML

[Nicholas Mangiafico]

Hi all,

My name is Nick. This is my first post on BP so I'll introduce myself. I am a 27 year old pharmacist from Connecticut and I, along with my partner, are looking to get into real estate investing. We currently own a single family that we live in, and have no children. We are looking to get into the multifamily market and would like to start with a BRRR, not something that needs massive renovations, but definitely a property that will teach us lessons, eradicate our fears and anxieties, and hopefully give us a pretty good ROI. We are thinking of buying a triplex or quadplex near one of the hospitals and attempting to rent out two units as long terms and having the third and/or fourth be short term rentals for about a month for students on rotations there (this is subject to change depending on where I can get the best deal). Because of the job market for the past few years and completing a residency I have only been working full time and full salary for about 1 year now. We have about 70-80k saved up between us and about 100k left in student loans. We would like to buy the property with cash and renovate it. My question is should we wait and continue to save until we have enough to do it all with our own money, or should we go with a hard money lender so we can get into the market quicker? My fears are waiting to save may take too long and our zeal will fade with time, but with the HML we have extra expenses in points and other things to consider.

Also I've heard various things about whether the market will continue to remain high or whether it will crash. Any insight on this and how it may affect a BRRR in the buying or refinancing phase would be greatly appreciated.