New investor from northern New Jersey

[John Trommelen]

Hello all this is my first post on Bigger Pockets. Myself and a friend are looking to get into real estate investing, specifically buy and hold or flipping, and we've been doing our due diligence over the past few months listening to podcasts, reading books, etc. We finally got to the point that we felt comfortable enough to speak to a mortgage lender. The mortgage lender told us that for a single family home we need 20% down and for a multi (2-4) family we need 25% down. I know private investors and hard money are options but I was wondering how others got started if those are in fact the rules? The market here is relatively expensive, we both have pretty good jobs, but would like to avoid using our entire savings to get this off the ground. Living in the investment properties for both of us aren't an option since we both have families and can't pick them up and move, so FHA loans I was told will not work for us. Any and all advice and/or criticism is welcome. Thanks in advance.

[Johnathan Boyle]

John Trommelen welcome to BP. There's a lot of great info on here so be sure to network. That is the key to all success in this business. Hard money and private lenders are great once you learn enough and know what you're doing. Someone wise once told me that in this business, you should be able to make money with little to no money. For example, I just closed on a fix and flip project with $0 out of my own pocket. The purchase and rehab was given to me by a private lender who was through a BP person I know's friends friend. Regardless, what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to follow the same path but talk to several other lenders as there are options with smaller credit unions if you're strictly looking for buy and hold without having to do rehab. If you want to rehab, you need to think about your criteria for each property more specifically as you will most likely use a private lender or hard money to start the deal and then try to refi into a mortgage. Overall, there are several ways to get involved, money is abundant so if you try your hardest and it's a deal, it will be funded. I hope that helps!