Making the leap to buying your first rental property

Rental Property Investor · Columbus, OH · Member since 2017 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes

4y

Hello, I am saving my money and reducing my spending while brainstorming ways to make money on the side so that I can begin to invest in real estate. I am interested in starting out with just 1 single family rental property and seeing where things go. Saving up for the first property seems like it takes an incredible amount of time and money to do it smart and right (affording an attorney and CPA in place, establishing an LLC or DST, and have enough cash for a down payment on a $250-$350k property, etc). I am in the VERY early stages of real estate investing of working on formulating a plan so that I can get started and take action, however saving up for the first property seems very cloudy to me and almost a little impossible due to the amount of money that needs to be saved up in order to do things smart. Here are my questions:

0. How did you make the leap from having nothing to owning your first rental property?

1. How much money would you recommend having saved up?

2. How much credit would you recommend having before getting your first property? I am thinking of creating either an LLC or DST for my real estate investments, and am unfamiliar with building credit under a business credit card. Any suggestions for building credit under a business credit card?

3. Did you wait until you saved enough to take action and buy your first property? Or did you find a deal when you didn't quite have enough money saved up by finding a way to make it work without having the money up front for the down payment?

4. The only debt I owe is on my vehicle (pick-up truck) which I am considering selling and getting a "beater" so that I can have more money to invest in real estate. Is this a good idea? Have you found it necessary to have a truck in real estate? I purchased it in 2020 so I can trade it in for a little more than what I purchased it for given the demand, but I don't want to get rid of it if it is going to come into great use in real estate since I got it for a good deal, but still owe quite a bit on it.

5. How much money is recommended to budget for a attorney? an accountant/CPA? Would you recommend having these people as part of your team prior to buying your first rental property? What are other things you recommend budgeting for before purchasing your first rental property?

I just want to get involved, stop spinning my wheels and take some action at the same time I want to make sure I am prepared and educated before I take action.

Thank you so much for reading. Any response or advice would be helpful.

0) I choose to do a BRRRR with a duplex here in Columbus Ohio so that I could rent out one side and renovate the other. That helped offset my expenses by having renters while I was renovating. I also rented out rooms on my side of the duplex. I did not have enough money to start so I asked my grandmother to loan me 12K for the downpayment.

1) In my case I took a risk and put everything on a 0 APR credit card because I knew I could pay it off with the money I would make from the refinance. I sure did. I got $80,000 back and was able to use that to buy my next property which was a 3 unit. I think it is wise though to at least have $10,000 in savings because there are always unexpected expenses.

2) My wife had credit in the 800 and mine at the time was in the 700's. I think it is always good to call around to different lenders and see what their options are and see how much that will affect your loan. I did not get an LLC until my 2 or 3 properties.

3)I pretty much answered this above. Ask those in your network and see who is willing to join you. I have found the more knowledgeable and passionate you are about this the more people are willing to invest.

4) Would you be doing the rehab on your own? Do you know how to do that on your own? It might be worth it to keep it if you are doing the rehab yourself.

5)It never hurts to ask local brokerages who they use, when they started, and how much they charge. Within that brokerage, I am sure several people are using different attorneys and CPA's.

I think it would be a good idea for you to find a mentor who is doing what you are doing and can help guide you. I would go to as many networking events. Start to call lenders and see what options they have. I would also start to look at properties so you get an idea of what they are going for and what the condition is, so when you are ready and find a good deal you can act fast.

6 Reply

Henry Lazerow

Real Estate Agent · Chicago, IL · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

4y

I second what @Steven Foster Wilson says and also did a house hack BRRR where financed part of rehab on credit card for my first project. It helped get cash back from the value add. In this market you really need do some updates even cosmetic to get high rents and make deals work. I don't have much experience in single family but for $250-350k you should be able to take down a multi unit with better returns. In terms of CPA for real estate its pretty basic stuff when own just a few properties and not terribly complex. I use a simple umbrella policy rather then an LLC and so do most of my clients.

If do not have an LLC and own less then 5 properties $300-600 for a real estate CPA is sufficient. You should have atleast $10k cash and ideally some lines of credit for potential emergency repairs.

2 Reply

Aj Parikh

Rental Property Investor · Centreville, VA · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 799 votes

4y

Hi Andrew, I would love to connect and discuss these questions. I am an out of state investor and would love to share my experience so feel free to reach out.

0 Reply

Andrew Rellinger

OP

Member since 2022 · 22 posts · 6 votes

4y

Quote from @Steven Foster Wilson:

Quote from @Andrew Rellinger: