First Invesetment Deal

[Jairmiya St. Hilaire]

Hi Everybody,

Looking to get some advice on investing in my first real estate deal. I've read a ton of books on residential and commercial real estate investing and believe that commercial is more of the path I want to take. Here's the deal though, given my lack of experience and capital, I'm not sure where to begin as far as financing goes. Should I contact a private lender? Or should I use my VA home loan and stay at 4 units and below for my first investment while I live in one unit for a year and have my tenants pay off my mortgage? I eventually want to move up into the 10-20 unit apartment complex range averaging 5-10k a month from my investments. So I guess my real question is, how would I present my case to a bank or private lender? What do they need or want to see financially that's going to make them say yes when I ask for a loan? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Jairmiya

[Lennon Lee]

Jairmiya,

I believe that "house-hacking" is one of the best strategies to get started, more so when it's taking advantage of a VA or FHA loan on a 4-Unit property and living for free on one of the units.

That being said, I'm a firm believer in going as big as possible as early as possible and start  seeing the benefits from economies of scale. In order to pursue bigger deals though, you really have to educate yourself not only on the different real estate investing strategies but also on deal analysis and underwriting. 

I would suggest you find a mentor in your area that is doing what you want to do at a high level. Once you feel you have gotten to a point where you have all the necessary education from books and podcasts and are ready to take action, reach out to these people and if you are willing to provide value to them, at least one of them will be willing to show you the ropes.

I hope it helps,

All the best!

Lennon