House hacking a MFH

[Paul D.]

Hello BP, I'm 26 I'm starting to plan my first deal. I still live at home with my parents but I have thoughts of getting into real estate. The thought of renting drives me nuts and makes no sense to me. I'm getting to the point where I want to move out and so if I do I want to own. Not rent. I want to make a return and not only that but learn real estate investing. I am running my own business at the moment and figure I get into this in hopes to grow a strong portfolio in time and hit my life goals. With all this said. My plan is that I'm thinking of looking into MFHs and house hacking it. Preferably a 4 plex or 3 plex if I can't find anything in the market but I figure more rooms under one roof the better. I am looking in the north jersey market. I figure to FHA loan on one of these homes, live in there build equity until I want to move out(after the year) into another home or buy another investment. My strategy of payment is to find renting numbers so that my tenants pay the mortgage, pmi, taxes. (Let me know if I'm missing anything that's included for debt service). I myself instead of contributing to the "rent" want to instead put money strictly into the principal to get it down as much as I can as fast as I can. That way a huge chunk of my money doesn't go into interest and my debt can be paid down much faster. Does any of this make sense of the way I'm thinking? I am open for all suggestions. I'm looking to make my first deal and just curious how I should finance it. There's only so much money I have saved up so I'm trying to be as creative as I can. Thanks in advance guys in new in this and appreciate the help!

[Chris Gibbs]

FHA is a great place to start. I am closing on the 18th on a triplex with that financing. Paying the loan down is all well and good but I would only do it to have the chance to refinance out of fha faster. PMI is expensive and the faster you can get it off the better. After that if the interest rates are still low I wouldn't sink to much money into it. Might as well save it for your next investment. Just my 2 cents.