Where/ how to start with limited available cash

[Lacey N.]

Hi Everyone,

While not new to real estate, I am relatively new to real estate specifically as an investment.  My question(s) are around how to start (or is it even possible) investing in real estate with small amounts of cash (talking about $10k or less).  Some of the thoughts and options that have run through my head -

• Other investors have mentioned the possibility of working with a hard money lender.  This scares me somewhat because I'm new.  At a high interest rate that I'm paying the lender, it sounds like a good way to lose everything while getting hung up on newbie stuff with the property.  I have a full time job that funds the savings I use to invest, so I can't be at the property 24x7 (or even half that), working on it, if its a flip or fix up.
• Would investing with a partner be a good idea?  My husband thinks this is risky - different people have different goals, different ideas, etc.  You're no longer in control of your investment.  If this is a good route, are there tips/ ideas in how to identify a good partner, where to find them, what details to work out before hand?
• Invest in a cheaper part of town (or a different state) - I've definitely thought about this and read the various posts about it, but cheaper part of town, I weigh the heightened risk of getting lower quality tenants, slower appreciation in value of the property or DEpreciation of property value when a market crash hits.  Different state, I anticipate having a lot more costs since I would have to pay people to help with everything from property management to minor fixes, etc.
• Invest first in the stock market since you can invest smaller chunks of money.  My husband has talked about doing short or long on stocks.  I don't know enough about this, and it sounds like a gamble to me.
• Use equity in my existing home to invest in a rental property (but this sounds like a scheme where I would take a HELOC for a down payment on an investment, to be able to take out MORE debt, meaning I have to rent or sell the investment property for even MORE money to cover increased debt costs).

So, are any of these options better than the others?  Is there something I haven't thought of or am I thinking about something incorrectly or not all the way through?  Open to any thoughts/ advice, etc.  Thank you!

[Frank Jiang]

I'm not exactly suggesting house hacking.  I'm suggesting to increase your balance sheet and acquire more houses through owner occupancy.  You would trade your current house for a similar house and move into that one instead, converting your current into a rental.  Then rinse and repeat either once a year or every other year if you want the tax benefit on capital gains.  You buy each house with the intent of turning it into a rental later and you do your analysis as if it were an investment property.  This is a good way to build a portfolio with limited funds since financing on owner occupied loans don't require as much money down.

That said, $50 a month after expenses is pretty tight (I hope it's $50 after accrual for repair and capex and not before).  You're risking running into a liquidity problem if a few things go wrong together.  This strategy in general is risky for liquidity since you're taking out a bunch of 95-96.5% loans on your portfolio, but on the flip side it's a game you can play with a relatively small amount of capital.