New from Oregon

[Amanda Groover]

Hi there, I accidentally posted my intro in the wrong place, oops! Anyway, I joined BP several months ago but was MIA from the site for a while after having my second child. A decent excuse but an excuse nonetheless. I am new to investing, my husband and I are really interested but we just haven't taken the leap and I think we feel a little intimidated. We are flexible/ undecided on what we want though I'm really interested in house hacking/ buying and holding. Currently we are in the middle of refinancing our home and plan to do one of the following: - take a cash out to use as a down payment for a rental property - get a Home equity LOC for the same purpose - try to find an investor with cash We're not sure what the best option would be or what we will qualify for. The bank is so frustrating! They make you feel like if you don't fit in this perfect box you can do nothing. I don't want to settle for that. And I've been a little disappointed with our market where ANY good property we inquire about is pending, just sold to a cash buyer, etc. I think the median here is about 250K but we're looking more in the 100K range, which has been difficult. So we are in that space where it feels like all the odds are against you but we aren't buying into it and we just want to find a way. My husband is a general contractor and I'm a teacher in a flexible position. I think it'd be a good idea to buy a fixer we can do our own work on since my husband is experienced. We have two small children (another challenge to finding time to put work in) and both work full time. Even with our full plates we are really excited and motivated to get started. Our end goal right now would be to have 25-30 properties that cash flowed 300 each. No timeline but I would LOVE to just start with our first of course. I love the BP podcast and the message I hear over and over is to just go for it, to quit telling yourself reasons you can't invest and just get your feet wet. I really want to, it's just unfamiliar territory and I'm not sure if we need to be more aggressive or look in other markets somewhere else or what. I'd love creative input or any words of wisdom at all. Any advice cheerfully accepted. Honestly just listening to the podcast is so inspiring! Just hearing real people be- well, real, is both comforting and motivating. Thanks for reading!!

[Kerry Baird]

Congratulations on the birth of your second child!  I started investing about the same point.  My 3 year old, who had long "princess" hair, did snow angels on my first rental's freshly painted walls.  She is now 17, and has shares in one of our properties.  

About your journey, as it is similar to ours: buy right so that you keep a good debt-to-income or DTI ratio. If you buy, occupy one year, and move on to another house and turn the old one into a rental, you can keep going until the cows come home. If, on the other hand, you stay in place and save up to buy the next one, you will find the first few to be low down payment and lower interest, but after 10, you will need a portfolio lender and the interest rates will be higher. As a point of interest, 4-plex units are still single-family and you would use conventional lending rather than commercial, so if you use those early "easy" mortgages on 4 doors here and 4 doors there, you will gain more cash flow per acquisition, which assists in growth.

We didn't go the multifamily route, but have done the other two strategies.  We are rehabbing a house that we occupy right now, in fact.  It is my 30th house over all, though we sold off the golden geese early in our career through flipping, rather than keeping them and renting them out.  

Well, it is good to see an excited young couple here.  Dig in!