Needing guidance in real eslate investing

[Eric Lyles]

Hello Everyone,

My name is Eric and I've posted here once before back in 2017.....so let's fast forward to today. I've been working hard and really putting in the hours at work to get ahead and build a business in real estate. The people here on bigger pockets are just amazing! Very informative, very intelligent, and inspiring. I've listened and read from individuals here on bigger pockets and it has helped me alot. On December 19th 2018 I purchased my first house(new developement) it's a 3/2.5 in Sacramento using an conventional loan with 5 percent down, 30 years at 4.87percent bringing my payment to 2,575 a month with everything included. Purchase price was $374,900. I immediately turned it into a house hack, renting out 2 bedrooms and living in the Master bedroom the first day I moved in. I actually don't mind having roommates and that's the strategy I want to stick with each time I buy a house so I can save money faster, until I have a kid In the future. It's not easy having roommates but I can handle it. I am grateful to have the opportunity to work a lot of overtime at my job which enables me to save a down payment quicker. I work on the utility poles which is referred to as a lineman. I want to be as transparent with you guys with my plans, finances and mistakes because I'm stuck with where I want to invest my money I save at the end of the year. I created a groundflor account because I was going to dump money into that but I realized I like being hands on, I like using my hands and fixing stuff when it breaks or even upgrading it. I have so much energy not to be hands on. I bring in approximately 110k(including OT) a year. I try to save half or more by budgeting my finances. Now that I have roommates paying me rent thats an extra 18k which goes into savings so as you see here I have capital at the end of the year to invest just don't want to see it go to waste. What I would like to do is rent out my house next year but the problem is the average rent for this house Is $2,200 from what the comps tell me. My mortgage is $2,500. I have no positive cash flow and I won't be able to rent it out and buy another property. Should I use the capital at the end of the year to recast my loan to bring the payment down to get it with in rent prices, which is going to cost me approximately 40-50k. Should I use that money as a 20 percent down for property I would like to fix up and keep long term and continue to live in the primary residence? Every property I buy I would like to keep for long term usIng the BRRRR stragety. I'm not interested in fix and flip at the moment. I also see real state as a business for me so I want to make sure I manage it properly or have a great property management company to manage it because as of right now I love my job and I don't plan on leaving it anytime soon. Another cool opportunity I get to have is that I respond to outages at different times of the day while I'm driving and I scope out distressed/vacant properties and write them down. I get to view the neighborhoods at 10pm or 2am or even 4pm because I cover all of Sacramento. The sub market I would like to focus on is North Oak Park which is in Sacramento. I understand Sacramento is a tough market but i don't want to give up on it. My dream is to partner with someone to help me learn the ropes. I just don't want to waste money. If that means me helping someone so they can help me I'm totally for it. Going half on a property just to get my feet wet. I'm currently reading "The ABCs of real estate investing" I have no credit card debt but have 101k In available credit, I pay my credit cards off full each month. I have an emergency fund. I do have a car loan which is 10k with a payment of 230/month and that's it. Before the house my credit scores were above 800. I love finance and paying bills, running numbers really gets me excited!

Are there any investors I can take out for tea or coffee here in Sacramento? 😊

If you were in this situation what would “YOU” do?

The money I collect from the tenants should I claim that on my taxes which affects my DTI?

Should I borrow money from a private lender to get started on my own.

I read so much on bigger pockets that I’m not sure what direction I should go with my particular situation.

Thank you for taking the time to read, I appreciate it.