Other options beside BRRRR

[Justin Gomberg]

Hi Everyone, 

I have a background as a loan officer but I only worked with clients who were refinancing their owner-occupied residence or purchasing a primary residence. Oddly enough it wasn't until I changed careers that I became very interested in Real Estate Investing. After reading and studying like many others on BP, I was introduced to the coined term BRRRR. Luckily with a background as a Loan Officer it was a pretty straight forward concept to grasp.

The part I don't fully understand is this... I do not have the capital to successfully BRRRR. I understand I can use a hard money lender/private lender to pay cash for a property and even the rehab. Because I live in Southern California I have decided to invest out of state and I personally for my first investment do not have the risk tolerance to try and pull off a rehab using a HML/PML on an out of state investment property (possibly in the future I will as I learn more). I have a great job and do not mind spending the money on a 25% down payment for multi-family property and going back to work in order to save more before purchasing another property ( I feel I will learn a lot about the market after my first purchase is rented out while I am saving for another one). My question is for those who do not BRRRR is the concept still the same in regards to finding a house below market value and purchasing the equity with the downpayment? It doesn't make sense to me to buy a property at the top of the market even if the cash flow is good because there is no safeguard in place for if the property lost value. I would love to hear your advice, thoughts, and feedback.

Thank you all so much!