Hello everyone, my name is Johnny I live outside of the Orlando area and its been a long dream of mine to get into real estate investing for a long time now, it has taken me this long to start because I thought you did need money to start, or needed good credit and also because I had so many questions I didn't know who or where to turn to for answers. I have been following bigger pockets podcasts for a year or two now and also other real estate podcasts or just basically anything related to real estate and even have purchased a few books here and there. I know now I don't need money of my own to start or have to have good credit to start.

My current situation that is preventing me from moving forward is I am a home owner and I am debating if I should sell and get the equity from my property to invest in another property or just rent out my current home and buy another one to live in. I understand I can either sell, refinance or take out a Heloc, I cant refinance because that would cause a higher interest that I can't afford, I dont earn much at my current job, not even with a combined salary from my wife. I already had talked to a real estate agent who is also a invester and ran the numbers and he said I would have to either come up with more cash or make more money to be able to afford a new mortgage on a second home if I were to rent out my current or sell it. I already work two jobs and its just not enough, my home insurance and taxes on the property has gone up along with everything else, so I am basically living paycheck to paycheck trying to make ends meet to provide for my family.

I thought about a Heloc loan, but I was just on a disaster forbearance program through my mortgage lender and from what I am researching its a modification on my loan and therefore it may be hard to qualify for a heloc, not sure if this is true or not. Even if I did qualify I am still worried about being able to make these extra payments on the Heloc, I understand the tenants will pay for it along with the rent on the second property I get but in order for that to happen my mortgage payments can't be too high otherwise no one will want to rent but if its not high enough I cant cash flow.

I was looking into house hacking getting into a duplex or triplex which are hard to find in my area in my opinion. However the cost of a duplex even if I rent the other unit and live in the other my payments will be more than what I can afford. So I am just stuck and dont know what to do. I hear so many stories of people getting several properties without any money of thier own, which I know you have to have some money if you are partnering with someone else but the point is it cant be this hard just to get into another property.

I also would like to know if my wife is able to apply for a traditional loan Fha under her own name, our current home is under my name only. I know she doesn't make enough to qualify for a loan but I can put the down payment for her and we can live in this property for one year and rent my current one, then use the equity from my second to get another home, at least thats what I would like to do, is this possible? I hope all of this makes sense I am just over whelmed with everything.
Thank you.

Orlando, Florida

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