Total Newbie Seeking Advice & Direction Please...

[Jessica K.]

Hi Everyone, 

I am a total newbie here - I have been absorbing daily (for past couple of weeks) all that BP has to offer - just discovered BP and think it's wonderful! 

A little background: hubby and I would like to get into rentals - something like 2 to 4 plex.  We live in Vegas.  We own our home (modest mortgage), no debt outside of said mortgage and have decent savings and retirement monies; both high credit scores, hubby long military career. 

These are my initial questions please (I apologize there are so many!!)

I thought I had read somewhere that only those multi families over 2 units' rental income can be used - does that mean that with SFR's, the income 'cannot' be taken into account, as in when you're calculating the transaction? Hope I made sense there... In any event, I would prefer we go for duplex or bigger, but just wanted to clarify this point.

Foreclosures sound 'nice' (if you're able to land one that is) but, should we just focus on multi-family since this would be our first deal? 

Which please, in your opinion is the best platform for me to use when searching for multi-families. Is it MLS, Realtor or xyz? I have a realtor in mind to work with also, I'm meeting with him to discuss later this week - it's someone I know already in the business.

I've thought about joining a local REIC - is that a good idea do you think, given how new I am to all this?? 

We can put down a reasonable deposit, though I have read it may be better (and I would prefer) we put down as little as possible and instead, use OPM.  Can we buy a multi-family with 3.5% down?  (I'm assuming of course that the numbers work if we were to do so).  

I have my realtor's license (I thought I wanted to be an agent and then very quickly realized otherwise) but I've held on to my license, hoping it might prove useful at some point); I'm far more interested in the 'investing' aspect, as opposed to working as a realtor.  However, linked to this to some degree, I was thinking about obtaining the Property Management Certificate - which I thought might prove useful in the future, if/when we have multiple properties.  Would you agree?

In terms of finance, we bank with and mostly do everything via USAA (military family) and our current mortgage is with USAA. Would be better off applying for a mortgage (say for the multi-family) with USAA, or perhaps a local bank instead? We are using the VA with our current home.

Hubby would 'not' contemplate living in a multi-family unit and needs his space - after his decades of service to the military, I respect his stand on this - hence we are looking for a multi-family as an investment but we will stay in our current SFR home.

These are my questions, and I'd be very grateful for anyone who would like to chime in and offer your opinion and expertise.  In anticipation, a big fat thank you!!

Jess :