Starting To Plan Out My REI Journey and Asking if I'm Crazy

[Dren Aguado]

My Current Situation:

My main goal in the next few months is to house hack a multifamily property in Chicago. 

I am currently interviewing for jobs and hopefully land one as a RE assistant to learn more about the industry aside from books and podcasts. 

Questions: 

- Should I be searching for properties and working with lenders now? or should I wait until I land a job?

- Would I be shooting too high and crazy to even think of acquiring a $500k property as my first house hack? (Soon will be making $30k-$40k annually with a credit score of 700ish) >_>

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Dren Aguado:

My Current Situation:

My main goal in the next few months is to house hack a multifamily property in Chicago. 

I am currently interviewing for jobs and hopefully land one as a RE assistant to learn more about the industry aside from books and podcasts. 

Questions: 

- Should I be searching for properties and working with lenders now? or should I wait until I land a job?

- Would I be shooting too high and crazy to even think of acquiring a $500k property as my first house hack? (Soon will be making $30k-$40k annually with a credit score of 700ish) >_>

You need to speak with a lender. I don't think you'll qualify for anything even close to that, if anything at all. Lenders typically want a solid two years in the same profession before they will consider that income. And $40,000 a year might only qualify you for a $200,000 loan, depending on your credit and your down payment.