I just recently joined BP after enjoying the podcast for some time now and I feel I'm in a great position to find / acquire my first rental property for house hacking, and would love and appreciate any input regarding my unique situation.

I'm 21 years old, living in a small town in Southwest Missouri, making $28k/yr as a hospital driver. My family and I moved here from Pasadena, California 2 years back due to a family member passing and I received an inheritance check of $165,000 (post tax) from the sale of the Pasadena property which I grew up in. I had $40k personally saved up too, so I currently possess $200k in capital.

My dilemma is that the town we've moved to here in Missouri is growing fast and housing prices are increasing fairly quickly, although.. I don't care one bit for Missouri compared to the quality of life that Pasadena / LA had to offer (not to mention the weather!) I'm essentially going nuts where I am now and would prefer to find a way to resume the life I enjoyed in California.

My question to you folks out there is: Should I house hack through a duplex in Missouri, where I don't enjoy living, but is steadily thriving? Or.. are there any creative ways that I could apply the capital that I have so that I could live in or around Pasadena? (which happens to be one of the more expensive cities in Los Angeles County)

Perhaps I should invest someplace completely different for house hacking.. essentially taking the route of delayed gratification with the goal in mind to someday be able to comfortably move back to L.A. in the coming years.

I'm young, and so I naturally want to "live it up" and be close to my friends and family, engage in outside sports where the weather calls for it, take day trips to the beach once again etc.. But it's difficult to ignore the investment opportunities elsewhere.

I'm open to ideas, criticism, thoughts, anything at all to point me in the right direction as I face some uncertainty in this moment of my life. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this and I wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous new year!

-Jack

Los Angeles County, California

2 Votes