New Investor - How do I expand out quickly?

[Manny Oviedo]

Hello All,

I'm new to BP, and I look forward to meeting many of you! I could use some help to figure out my next steps in this journey to be as successful as you all.

My journey started last year, April 2021 when I acquired a legal 2 flat as my first property. I fully renovated it, converted to 4 units (2 in basement) and currently renting out and managing myself. Investment is currently cash flowing nicely. Half a year after that, I sold a primary home my parents had and bought another primary home which I'm currently living in with them. Properties numbers look as followed:

INVESTMENT (Aprl 2021)

Loan type: FHA - 3.5% down

Interest Rate: 3.75%

Purchase price $400,000

Renovation Cost: 60K

Estimate equity: 100-150k

Cash flow: $1500-2000/month

PRIMARY (Oct 2021) (plan to leave parents here)

Cost: $300,000

Loan type: conventional %25 down

Interest Rate: ~6.75%

Renovation Cost: 50k

Estimate equity: 160-200K.

I currently have 20K in savings and cracking down on my spending to be able to save 30-40K a year. Im blessed to have a stable six-figure income at age 26 and I plan to take advantage of it to scale up as quickly as I can. If you were in my situation, how would you build your portfolio from here? SFHs, multi-family, big commercial real estate? Thank you all so much in advance!

[Paul De Luca]

@Manny Oviedo

Nice work and welcome to the forums!

With $20k in savings, buying another primary residence (likely a SFH) appears to me as your best option. You've already used FHA and Home Possible (5% down) wouldn't work for you on 2-4 unit properties. You could do 10% down on another 2-4 unit property but then it would likely wipe out most or all of your reserves even under $200k, which wouldn't get you much. Because of that I think using a 3-5% down loan on a SFH would be your best bet. Maybe you could even find a SFH with an in-law suite which you could either live in or rent out separately. Or you could do a cash out refinance to free up some cash.