29 And Want To Buy First Investment Property

[John Puma]

Hey guys,

Little info about myself. I live in Manhattan with very cheap rent surprisingly. I work on television with a union on a long running series that consistently earns me gross 150-190K per yr (union overtime etc affects the annual drift). I have approx 34K in 401K, 31K in a Roth Ira, 17k in a Individual Taxable Investment Acct, 13k in cash reserve, 5k in individual stock picks, 10k in BTC/ETH. I would have larger numbers but I only started earning like this 3 years ago and one of those years was effectively taken from me due to covid and 7 months of unemployment.

I have a affordable lease on my car going on its third and final year. I have about 5000 left in student loan debt at a consolidate 3%. I never have more then 2k in credit card debt that I zero out monthly. According to credit karma I have an 800 score across the board. My effective monthly overhead is somewhere around 21-2200 a month. 

I would like to buy my first multi-fam ideally in the tri state area. I would like to use a FHA loan to secure a down payment. My biggest problem is I have no clue where to start? Realtor? Zillow? How do you select a budget? Is the market just grossly inflated? I am in no rush and want to take this slow and methodically. I will have more liquid cash at the end of my season (April 2022) which is when I want to buy.