What Should I Prioritize?

[Lynelle Livesay]

Hi all. My husband and I are newbies, and we need some help prioritizing goals according to where we're at in our REI journey. We want to buy and hold.

Quick version:

-We currently have one property in Denver we rent out.

-We recently moved to the Nashville area. We’re renting an apartment ourselves - didn’t want to buy when we knew absolutely nothing about the cities or market out here. Our contract is up in September.

-We have some credit card debt from the move.

-We want to buy as soon as we can to reap the rewards of investing, cash flow and equity buildup.

So… what should we tackle first?

My initial thought is we need to get our credit card debt paid off ASAP.

If so, should we then first buy a place for ourselves, followed by a rental? Or do we buy a rental first, potentially renew our apartment contract for a few more months, and then buy our own place?

I hate the idea of renewing when we could have our own home for the same, if not less, cost/month.

If we bought for ourselves first, we could do low money down if we live there for a year, then move on and rent it out, correct? And hypothetically, could we do that multiple times until we are getting enough cash flow each month to make more substantial down-payments?

Also, should we set up a corporation to deal with our real estate immediately, or is that something we should wait on until we have a larger portfolio?

So many questions. I’m a planner, if you can’t tell. I know a lot of this may be personal preference, but I’d appreciate any and all advice! Thanks in advance for your input!