Closed First Deal, & Looking For Ideas How To Grow From Here?

[Colin Johnson]

This March my wife and I closed on our first house hack deal in east Portland. The property is a 5 bed 3 bath, with an additional workshop in the backyard. We will be doing a small rehab to convert it into a duplex (it’s fairly good to go). 3 bed 2 bath’s for our living quarters, and 2 bed 1 bath for the tenants, with potential to rent out the workshop as work space or storage.

This property is the ideal first home / rental property for us because, based off preliminary projections, renting out the additional unit and the workspace, the income could cover about 2/3 of the mortgage. Which will reduce living costs significantly more than what they currently are, and allow us to save and invest further.

It will also be great experience learning the ropes of being a landlord and managing a property. Any tips for being a landlord and managing the property while living there would be great!

With the first property under the belt, I’m already thinking of what will come next. I definitely want to keep expanding into real estate investing. Perhaps go for a larger multi-family property next, maybe a 5-6 unit. Since a commercial loan isn’t based off your debt to income ratio, but the income of the property itself. Which seems more logical to be able to keep expanding your portfolio, and leverage more loan power. But the main question, that I’m sure every newbie investor has.. how to get that down payment for the next investment without having to save a large percentage of income for a few years?

Would love to hear some strategies and techniques you guys have done to branch out to more properties after getting your first.

Thanks for your time and appreciate any insight shared!