Newbie in an Interesting Situation

[Lauren Nolan]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Lauren and I am a brand new BiggerPockets member feeling motivated and COMMITTED to beginning my real estate investment journey. That being said, I am in a bit of an odd situation and am looking for some advice. 

I moved abroad when I was 22 and have lived in China and Australia for the past 4 years. I have just moved back to the USA with a great experience under my belt and a soft place to land as my parents are happy to have me stay with them rent free until I decide where to move.

My partner is from Belgium and will hopefully be receiving his green card next month to join me. Both of us are totally debt free but with that, neither of us have ever owned a credit card/have no credit. So, we need to figure out how to build our credit in order to apply for loans for investments. Any advice on this is greatly appreciated. 

Secondly, we need to decide where to live and where to invest. Because I am new to investing, I feel it is safer to invest near where we will be living, but my partner MUST be near a surf beach with consistent waves so that really limits are selection. We are thinking Northeast FL, but I am unsure about the strength of neighborhoods/markets compared to price value. I am from the Muskegon/Grand Rapids, Michigan area and have contradicting feelings about whether it is a good idea to begin investing here (MI) despite needing to move closer to the ocean (FL) or waiting to begin until we decide where to move. Does anyone have any advice on good areas to move and/or if it is wise for beginners to make out of state investments? Strength of opportunities in NE Florida or Muskegon/Grand Rapids MI?

I would like to focus on either Multifamilies (duplex, triplex, fourplex) where my partner and I can live in one of the units and rent out the others as we are low on savings, or doing BRRRR with single family homes.

Thank you so much for reading and I am so excited to dive deeper into the forums and become an active and enthusiastic BP Member!!

[Lance Ching]

I would find some secured credit cards, capital one has one as does fifth third bank which has a lot of locations in Michigan and Florida.  Most likely without credit history many credit card companies will not approve you...  with a secured card you are much more likely to be approved and can start building that positive payment history.  The last thing you want is a ton of inquiries from credit card companies when you really don’t have the credit history to be approved...  This is a start, also if you have any savings you could look into savings secured lines of credit at a lot of banks, but basically they use the savings account as collateral and will give you a line of credit against those funds...  this is another way to build positive payment history.  The bank I work for has pretty conservative criteria when it comes to credit cards but Off the top of my head I think we require at least 4 trade lines with 2 currently open to be approved.  

Hope this helps, I also live in Michigan but in southeastern part of state, love the Grand Rapids area tho.