Newbie Potential Investor

[Brandon Guzman Siars]

Hello BiggerPockets! I’m a newbie here and I’m trying to learn as much as I can about real estate investing. I’ve been doing a lot of reading but I’ve never asked any questions, so here goes...

A little background...I’m an accountant of 4 years with some experience on the tax and accounting side of real estate. I’ve also co-managed some rental properties with my husband, who technically owns the properties, for ten years. I’m not only looking to expand his business but grow my own as well.

I have registered an LLC and opened a bank account and credit card ( just to make it a real thing in my mind). I now need to make funding happen.

Here’s the ugly truth...I earn roughly $40,000 a year as an accountant. My car payment is $642 a month and I owe $80,000 in student debt, which is on an IBR of $0 per month. I also have credit cards with minimum payment around $150 per month total and a mortgage of $340.

Do I have a chance of getting started in this business because traditional loans apparently can’t approve me for what I need.

[Filipe Pereira]

@Brandon Guzman Siars, your car loan is INSANE and is probably single handily the number one thing stopping you from being able to save $$$. Imagine you only had a car loan of $250 a month. That's 5K a year you could set aside for your real estate goals. 

Even if you had more significant savings, with the numbers you shared your DTIs are pretty unfavorable if I had to bet (debt to income ratio). Your income is probably around 2200? Net, and your debts total over half of that. I would work on that car situation immediately. 

Don't do things that "feel good", do things that work. Go get after it!