Fear holding me back from start investing

[Keleisha Carter]

Hi BP Fam!

I want to start investing by doing a house hack in Florida area. I have been reading books on Rental Property investing, reading blogs and the forums. But I feel I’m not ready.

Saving to have 20k in savings when I’m ready to start. But I just feel scared, That even when I save the 20k, I will find another reason not to move back to Florida and start investing. Some of the questions that tun through my mind is, if I leave my job and move to Florida, what will I do for income in the meantime while i work on purchasing a property.

I’m currently living in Boston and want to move back to Florida soon so I can house hack.

Any advise on how to just take the step and overcoming my fear?

[David Sisson]

OK, so what you are saying is that you are saving money to buy a home. Then, once you've bought that home, you'll get a couple of housemates to help you pay the bills. 

Honestly, this is super simple, and the main fear is probably because it'll be your first house, right? 

The first one is always scary, but if you've run the numbers a bit, you'll see that it's about the same cost as renting, and maybe cheaper. 

Trust me, once you've got it, it's no more complex than renting. You pay the "rent" to the bank, and the utilities to the same people you always would. The additional complexity is:

1) Additional utilities to pay - usually just the water bill

2) Anything that breaks, you have to fix

3) Yeah, you need to deal with the yard too

Trust yourself, believe in the future, and plow through it. You will make mistakes, and that's just part of life, and part of learning.

A bigger red flag - in what you said - is that you said "if I leave my job and move to Florida, what will I do for income in the meantime while i work on purchasing a property."

Honestly, WHY do you need to NOT have a job when you are in Florida? Why do you need to move to Florida to buy a house? This is personal finance 101 - don't move somewhere without a source of income. Don't move unless there's a good reason for it. If I was you:

1) Save the down payment

2) Get a job in the new location

3) Buy the house at the same time you start the new job (I've moved across the country, bought a house, and started a job in just a few days, you can do it too). 

4) Travel to look at homes, but don't MOVE until you have the house and job lined up. 

5) Consider staying where you are instead. 

6) once you have the job and the house, hack the heck out of that house!