Starting out in an expensive market

[Nicholas Doyon]

Hi all,

I currently live in San Luis Obispo, California which is a pretty expensive market. I moved here from Canada two years ago and left most of my cash invested in the market back in Canada since the CAD-USD conversion didn't make sense at the time since I will most likely end up back in Canada eventually. I started building up capital in the USA two years ago to potentially be able to buy a house hack or a live-in flip in the area. Although, with the median house price in SLO being around $730k, I'm realizing that, even with a savings rate of 45%, it is going to take a while before I can accumulate the capital for the down payment + renovations (if needed). I am looking at properties every day and am pretty familiar with the market. I recently started seeing some opportunities that could potentially make sense for live-in flips (may need more analyzing), but I always get stuck because of pricing. For example, latest deal is listed at $875,000. Comps in the area for similar houses sell for between 1.1M-1.5M depending on how remodeled they are. I feel like this could be a good opportunity, but I have not pursued anything further because I get stuck at the idea that I may need to put down 30k-35k down payment (3.5% FHA) (which I probably could), but then the renos would certainly be an additional 100k-150k.

My question is: what options should I look at to help me close on a deal like this when I have limited capital at the moment? Partnerships, hard money lenders, other?

I am tired of paying $2,500 in rent every month... (I'm currently saving $2,400/month)

Excited to hear ideas and/or connect with other investors in the area!

Thank you