Starting out (Saving for first multi family)

[Tramaine Robinson]

Hello all, long story short I’m an Accountant in the Waukesha Wisconsin area and between me and my girlfriend we make about $90k a year. I’m pretty frugal and plan to have saved $10-$20k by the time our lease is up. I’ve been listening to the BiggerPockets podcast for a while and I now have hopes of owning and managing units myself. My question is for a first time home buyer, if we wanted to buy a multi unit property and live in one of the units is it still 3.5% down if it’s more than 2 units? I’ve heard before that for multi that it’s 3.5% if you plan on living in one of the units but 10% if you didn’t, I just wanted to make sure that applied to all multi family properties. Also, how deep into my savings goal should I wait before meeting with a realtor? Should I try to obtain the first property in my name solely just so she could get approved for loans later? How does that work. Sorry if this statement sounds all over the place I just have so many questions. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

[Rebecca Knox]

Ann & Steve Belter, Belter and Associates, did this same thing--actually, in Waukesha too---they each house hacked 4-units in their own names prior to getting married and did it very successfully.  They also provide consulting services as well to help people get started using this strategy. In my experience, many of the great multi family deals are sold off-market, before they are even listed...I would connect with people marketing for apartments as well as realtors but my suggestion is have your financial house in order so you can prepared to move decisively when the opportunity comes up.