Selling my first home & moving into the real estate game. Advice?

[Devon Fernandez]

Hello folks. Aspiring longtime real estate investor, this is my first post here and looking forward to hearing what you think.

So currently a 26 year old single male living in South FL. I purchased my first property (2/2 townhome) in March of 2018 for a solid 173k. I'm working a full-time job that pays 50-60k a year (depending on commissions/bonuses), the only debt to my name is a recent auto loan for $13k, credit cards and my mortgage. It's been essentially 1.5 years as a homeowner and in that timeframe the value of my property is in the ballpark of $210-225k, so essentially a $45-55k difference from what's left on my mortgage. Being that I live in a gated community that is strict on renting and charges a ridiculous $450 a month HOA, the best way to capitalize on my property is to unload it and capitalize on the appreciation since. As we speak it is about 5-7 days away from being listed for sale.

My long-thought and researched next chess move would be to purchase a duplex/multi family property. As is known rental properties need 20% down, but if I myself lived in one of the two units I could claim residency and only need to put 3.5 (FHA) to 5% down (conventional). I've already researched a wide range of my county and I can easily get a decent duplex in living conditions for $220-300k (NO awful HOA), depending on how high I want to go and what my ROI could be. With some calculations I'll be looking at a mortgage of ballpark $15-1800, and the going rate for rent would be $1000-1300 a month, essentially covering a very nice chunk of the mortgage each month. With this I'd be able to keep $10-15k in the bank from my original flip, I'd drop my cost of living by conservatively $1200 a month, and then use some of that amount to save each month for the next property! And lastly once 12 months has passed, the bank will allow me to move out and I can capitalize and rent both units out and move onto the next! Doubling the cash flow.

In the end my goal is to own 3 properties by 30, and eventually leave any full-time job behind and enjoy a career as a real estate investor. I’d love to hear the thoughts/feedback! Thanks everyone!