What’s keeping you from investing in real estate right now?

[Michael Calvey]

I’ve been seeing a lot of articles with people (millennials, mostly) struggling to buy properties, whether it's their first home, or for investing in real estate. Curious what has been the experience here. If you’re millennial, even better but just want to gauge what the struggle is.

Not enough properties? Interest rates? Down payment? Not sure you're making the right decision?

[Manny Vasquez]

I recently sold two properties to millenial clients.  One property was bought by a single, millenial woman and another property was purchased by a millenial couple (recently married), both in California.  I would say that the challenge in both cases was "lack of knowledge" regarding their lending options. For the record, I'm a real estate agent but I keep myself informed of the different lending programs out there so that I can pass that knowledge on to my clients.  I also have a list of lenders that I have worked with in the past that I recommend.

In both cases, when I was approached by them to purchase a home, they had very little knowledge of the home buying process, they were definitely not ready. Most everything that they thought they knew about the home-buying process was incorrect.  I'm pretty sure most of that misinformation came from the media that continues to create an atmosphere of fear mongering.  We sat down and traced out a plan (i.e. paying down debt, increasing their FICO scores, saving for a down payment, type of home) and in both cases, they were ready to buy in less than a year's time.  I was impressed how quickly they got to work on each of their strategies, they were definitely determined to buy. As the saying goes, when there is a will, there is a way!