What would you recommend as a first rental investment?

[Edlira Clevenger]

Hi everyone, Looking for some advice from BP community on what will be best as first time buy and hold investment. We will be looking into central Florida more specifically orlando area. Will take a loan and a family member will help with down payment which could be a partner in the deal too. Still have to sort out the details of that. But that is not he problem. My husband and I, were told to find the deal and present it to the person. We already own a home in south Florida on a VA loan at 3.5 % interest rate. I was thinking either refinance it and rent out of primary residence then purchase a new home in central Florida with a VA loan again. Might not be worth it as will hardly gain a much better rare to justify the closing costs. You get more house for the money there. If I rent out my primary residence I would probably net around $700.00 in profit. Another option we are thinking to get a duplex or MFH in central Florida maybe an off market deal. Then we eventually sell our house and move to Orlando area to be close to family. With the surplus we could put money down for our primary residence and a third property. Another option I was recommended from someone that is already Doing it, to buy a single family home with a lot of rooms and rent out the rooms separately. What would you do? Thanks in advance

[Andrew Ashby]

@Edlira Clevenger, I recommend the multi-family house hacking route in the Orlando Metro Area. You could do the renting of rooms scenario in a single family house, but that absolutely will not fly in 90% of the HOA neighborhoods. You'll have to be sure to comply with both your HOA (if there is one) and any city/county ordinances restricting the number of unrelated adults cohabiting under the same roof.

I also recommend retaining your current primary residence as a rental under that VA loan. I still own my very first primary residence as a rental on a VA loan (I'm ex-Navy and I lived there 4 years). The monthly rent on that house is only a few hundred bucks more than the mortgage payment (as you would expect with a no money down loan), but I try to take a longer more permanent view of my investments. I OWN THAT PROPERTY and its value isn't just about me or my lifetime; it's part of my plan to permanently break the chains of wage slavery for my children and their descendants.