College grad Looking to be financially free in the next 10-15 years

[Scott Goulet]

Hey everyone, 

I just found bigger pockets and I have been listening to as many of the podcasts as i possibly can. I work full time in sales for LexisNexis Risk Solutions and would like to start investing in real estate. I'm not quite sure what i want to do to start out yet, but I'm thinking of doing a "House Hack" on a du/triplex in the boca raton/ft. Lauderdale area. Any advise or suggestions would be appreciated. 

Thanks, 

Scott  

[Colin Smith]

I graduated back in 2012, so not too long ago. Shortly after graduating I bought a HUD single family home (4 bedrooms) that needed a fair amount of work. I rented out the other 3 bedrooms / house hacked and used the rent money to rehab the house. This has been one of the best financial decisions of my life as it has by far accelerated my net worth greater than any of my friends who graduated the same time or before me. Looking back I wish I had bought a multi-unit over an SFR for a couple reasons...

1. I wouldn't be living with my tenants.

2. It's a lot easier to do long term leases when renting out a unit over a bedroom.

3. I got married in August and had to kick out all the tenants. The wife did not want to live with them. Had it been our own unit, I would still be cash-flowing on the property. 

4. Someday you'll probably want your own SFR for your wife and kids. The property you buy now will help you create the equity for the down payment for that house while you get to keep your multi-unit as a long term rental. We are about to sell ours to move across town. We won't be keeping it as a rental because it doesn't cash-flow high enough and we'll use the equity in this house to become debt free (except our new mortgage). Had it been a multi-unit it would have likely cash-flowed at an overall higher rate.