HELP A YOUNG INVESTOR!!

[Anthony Navarro]

Hello BiggerPockets community! This is my first post and I don’t know why I waited so long. I have listened to almost every podcast and read the forums as often as I can.

A little bit about myself is that I am 24 years old and live in the Bay Area specifically the East Bay. I have been interested bordering on obsessive on investing in real estate since I was in high school. I have saved all my money from all my jobs during high school and college and recently graduated from college last May and make a pretty good income and live on the bare minimum so that I could save as much as possible for the last year. I am also partnering with my father who has saved most of his life and looking for passive income besides his pension and 401K as he inches closer to retirement. I currently work as a personal trainer and a resident manager for a 70 unit complex (I did this to gain experience and learn the ins and outs of real estate).

My big question to the BiggerPockets community is what should I do? My goal is to first house-hack (purchase a duplex, triplex, or quadplex live in one and rent the others out) after doing this I am willing to invest 1-2 hours away. My main goal is cash flow and building a portfolio that cash flows enough to build financial freedom. But I keep hearing from blogs, friends, and others that it is not time to buy real estate that I should wait because the market is going to drop. Also, when I look at different properties where I live in the East Bay nothing makes sense on paper to invest in. When I compare to the 1% rule everything I see is closer to .6% or .7%.

What would you do if you were in my situation and had a goal of cash-flow and financial freedom? My biggest obstacle that I seem to have to overcome is not having patience and wanting to dive right in. Thank you so much for taking your time to read my post and any advice is greatly appreciated!

Have a great day!

-Anthony Navarro

[Paul Sorgi]

@Anthony Navarro it appears you are on the right track with the house hack so stay the course. When seeking advice on when to buy I can only say do not take any from those who don't do.  The market has rebounded from the crash of 2007 and the bottom of 2009 and nobody knows how high it will go or what will bring it down.  There are deals out there you just have to search for them.  I always apply the 3 Ds to finding any good deal.  Death Divorce and Debt.  

Being on the West coast and in the Bay Area (disclaimer know nothing about the area) and your reference to the 1% rule my suggestion would be to look at the properties form a different set of criteria.  For one how much can you put down?  Cash flow always improves when you increase your down payment but at the same time your cash on cash return decreases.  So the deal looks different to different people in how they analyze it.   You have to set your criteria and comfort level then buy according to it.