Should we go for it? (Newbie)

[Jade Bloomfield]

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are new to RE and would like to get some thoughts on what our move should be right now. I would appreciate it if you had anything to chime in on.

We‘re currently renting and, before this all started, we had begun the process of buying our own place—a MFH that we can house hack. We’ve not put in any offers but have been looking and were waiting for a slightly better credit score (I’m not from the US so have none and my husband hasn’t used credit before).

We’re now at a good spot to start putting in offers so the conundrum is:

Should we just go for it considering we were going to anyway, and considering that we’re planning on it being a long term buy and hold (so a dip in the market shouldn’t be a huge issue here), not to mention the low mortgage rates and the fact that we can start the clock on our year-long owner occupied situation sooner rather than later.

Or should we hold off? Should getting a property at a potentially much cheaper price be the deciding factor here? What if mortgage rates go up? And should we even care about mortgage rates too much since our tenants will likely be paying it down for us?

The property we’re seriously considering right now has a 7% cap rate (obviously it would be less if we were living in one half but eventually it should be a decent return). It was pending and has recently come back on the market but we know why. Our realtor had buyers for it who got spooked by the current situation and backed out. He thinks they made a big mistake. If that means anything.

I’ve been listening to the podcast (BP and BP Money) to get a sense of how the RE market responds in recessions, etc. and it seems as though things might head south but we’re wondering if this is too good an opportunity to pass up and if getting out of renting and on our way takes priority over a potential reduction in prices. (N.B. The property is in Olympia, Thurston County, WA which has a high demand and very low inventory. Many have suggested that in these places, the demand will bolster the RE market even through a recession.)

Thanks all!