New Investor in the Bay Area

[Craig Curelop]

Hi everyone,

I have just started looking into real estate investing in the past few months. I have read a few books and have started listening to the BiggerPockets podcast. As I read it seems as though there is a sort of spectrum in terms as to when to the pull the trigger on a first purchase. In other words, you don't want to act too quickly and accept a bad deal, but also don't want to have analysis paralysis. Any recommendations here? 

Also, I would love to get everyone's perspective in terms of which financing is best to use. For someone who is just starting out and has limited resources, I am thinking of taking out an FHA loan and living in the place I purchase for a year. Wondering if anyone has experience here?

Last question - Aye or nay on obtaining a real estate license? I have heard convincing arguments for each point.

Best,

Craig

[Chris Mason]

Welcome, @Craig Curelop.

One thing you will face in our area is that the one-unit FHA loan limit is only $625k, and that condos have to be FHA approved -- which very few are. Multi-unit loan limits are higher, but it's very tough to get FHA 3.5% down offers accepted on multi-units.

5% down FNMA solves the condo problem. Financing in the high balance range required 10% down until very recently, so a lot of the existing literature was written before 5% down for SFR and condo purchase prices up to about $658k was possible via Fannie, and FHA 3.5% down was the only game in town.