Young Investor From Boston in Quite a Pickle, Share Your Tips

[Mingze Wang]

Hello everyone, I been into real estate for the past 3 months. Seems like everyone here also like real estate, so I figured I'd ask for some tips.

A little background - I work full time in tech field, but I ALWAYS had a passion for investments. My dad is an accountant and real estate investor in a college town in Western Massachusetts, so I guess that rubbed off on me. In beginning of 2018, with an ambition, no knowledge, and a gun-ho mentality. I made my first offer on a house I can barely afford as a primary resident (3bd, 1.5ba close to Tufts University), I am glad the owners went with another offer, I would of paid close to 2.5k a month in "rent" for a single room assuming I rented out the other rooms at a near optimal price.

Since then, I've read Rich Dad, The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner, lurking daily around BP, and I've started listening to BP podcasts. I realized the market is way out of my league around me (Greater Boston Area). People would pay 750k for a 2bd condo ~650 sq ft in Cambridge, some would offer cash with no contingencies. I know it's nuts.

Which bring me my question, what can I do? As a novice investor living in an area with one of the hottest housing market. Here are the things I been looking into:

1. House hacking, in a B-/C+ area that still has access to easy public transit into the city. Extremely hard to come by though, but they do exist

2. Summer vacation rentals in Cape Cod, this create an issue where these are treated as 2nd homes or investment house, where I would not get the best APR and I can't use my ROTH IRA as a down payment for my first home.

3. Get a fix-her-up. I only swung a hammer once or twice and my college degree got me good at googling things. Bank is less willing to finance this as well.

Any one has any tips doing the ones mentioned above around the area? I'd love to listen

I am also looking to join some real estate investment groups for networking purposes. I use meetup and I was able to find a few. If you know a good one, please let me know!