19 Year Old Mechanic by Day, Real Estate Aspirer by Night

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Hey everyone!

I posted a while back about my hopes of house hacking soon in order to get started in real estate and I received a lot of great advice. 

Just a little recap: I am located in Kansas City and work full time as a classic car mechanic. I work as much as I can and learn about real estate on the side. I saved up over 15k at the time (now over 20k), and I'm looking for what I should do next.

I took all of that advice deeply into consideration and have been looking for properties to house hack, or even cheap SFHs to possibly flip in the meantime. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything yet, but that may be a blessing in disguise, because my parents have since told me that I can continue staying with them for the next few years rent free.

So, with my housing being covered, it almost makes it feel like I'd be taking a step backwards if I were to get an FHA to buy a property to house hack. So, my question to you more seasoned investors, if you were in my position, what would you do? Get a conventional 30 year fixed loan on a small MFH and rent it out? Keep saving my money until I'm 23-24 and then purchase my first real estate? Should I invest in small fix & flips? Or lastly, invest in a small shop that would allow me to own my own car flipping/repair business on the side? 

Thank you all so much for your help, I love learning from all the amazing people in the BP community! Like always, feel free to get in contact with me if you are from the KC area and are looking for new REI friends!

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Originally posted by @Steven May:

Hey Great question! I started with a house hack at 23 on a SFH. It is a great strategy and now its a great rental since I've moved out. I wasn't from the area so I didn't have the option to live with my parents rent free. You are on the right path and I would say continue to live at home and save until you have enough to do FHA on a tripled or quadplex and house hack that! It will be huge for you! I don't know anything about car flipping so I have no advice on that haha. Reach out and lets chat!

 Thank you for your input and experience, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment!

That's awesome! That's realistically what I've always wanted to do, but I can't help but feel as if I am wasting so much time in between now and when I'm 23-24. However, like you said, it is a great and proven strategy and is one of the best ways to get into REI at a younger age. In the meantime, I will definitely keep saving, and if something were to pop up at the right price, I'd try to act on it.

No problem on the car flipping lol! I'm not too much of a genius on it myself, I just know how to fix them. I love the idea of using that knowledge in a way to make money to use towards real estate, but I just need to figure out the best way to capitalize on it. I've thought about a small piece of land with a shop on it that I could use to repair/flip projects, but not certain the cars could cover the overhead. Then I began thinking I should get a slightly bigger area than what I need, and rent out a portion of it to help cover the cost. Who knows. As you may be able to tell, I have a bit of trouble when it comes down to narrowing what I should focus on, but hopefully I can make that work out in my favor lol.

Anyways, thank you again for reaching out. I will for sure be in touch! I see it says you are from the area, let me know if you ever plan on heading to any REI meetings around here and maybe we could meet up!