Seeking Advice for Our First Investment

[Jazmin Hernandez]

Hello Bigger Pockets community! 
 I am seeking advice!! My fiancé and I are very new to this. We don’t have family or friends that can give us advice so I rely on books, podcasts, and experts for help. We have been looking for properties for about a year and I would like some advice on what you think the best move for us is according to our situation.

Our situation: We have been approved for 1.2million, have about 100k in savings, great credit, and have some student loans but no other debt. We make around 250-300k/ year together (just began our careers and really depends on our overtime). 
FIRST time buyers in California. We would be living in this property until we buy our personal home. Looking in Orange County primarily but open to San Bernardino County. We would like to buy an investment property before our own personal home and purchase our first property in CA. However, eventually just invest in property out of state. These are my current options (if there are better option I would appreciate the feedback!!)

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Option 1: Use CALHFA can only be SFH with ADU (no multi family!). They will give us 15-20% down payment, we will need to pay back the down payment loan PLUS 15-20% of our EQUITY if we sale or refinance. Program just came out this week so have to do more research.

Option 2: Get a duplex with 5-10% down. I have been told we HAVE to put down at least 20% down for a triplex and above and therefore buying a triplex/4plex doesn’t seem feasible. My fear is buying a 1million+ duplex or fixing it and never having cash flow, (in Orange County I see that is about the average price).

Option 3: Buy more affordable SFH around 600-700k BUT invest out of state. (Don't want to make a mistake by buying our personal home vs. investment property first) but I'm starting to see how hard it is to invest in CA.

[Lawrence Potts]

Quote from @Jazmin Hernandez:

Hello Bigger Pockets community! 
 I am seeking advice!! My fiancé and I are very new to this. We don’t have family or friends that can give us advice so I rely on books, podcasts, and experts for help. We have been looking for properties for about a year and I would like some advice on what you think the best move for us is according to our situation.

Our situation: We have been approved for 1.2million, have about 100k in savings, great credit, and have some student loans but no other debt. We make around 250-300k/ year together (just began our careers and really depends on our overtime). 
FIRST time buyers in California. We would be living in this property until we buy our personal home. Looking in Orange County primarily but open to San Bernardino County. We would like to buy an investment property before our own personal home and purchase our first property in CA. However, eventually just invest in property out of state. These are my current options (if there are better option I would appreciate the feedback!!)

…………….…………….……………………………………

Option 1: Use CALHFA can only be SFH with ADU (no multi family!). They will give us 15-20% down payment, we will need to pay back the down payment loan PLUS 15-20% of our EQUITY if we sale or refinance. Program just came out this week so have to do more research.

Option 2: Get a duplex with 5-10% down. I have been told we HAVE to put down at least 20% down for a triplex and above and therefore buying a triplex/4plex doesn’t seem feasible. My fear is buying a 1million+ duplex or fixing it and never having cash flow, (in Orange County I see that is about the average price).

Option 3: Buy more affordable SFH around 600-700k BUT invest out of state. (Don't want to make a mistake by buying our personal home vs. investment property first) but I'm starting to see how hard it is to invest in CA.

Congratulations on committing to making this first step! I’d be curious to who you spoke with about lending, that seems pretty limited. Every lender is different, I suggest working with a lender that owns real estate.

Talk to @Grant Schroeder, he’s helped a lot of investors in CA, OR, WA, and his company has great first time investor products.

I think SFR with ADU's is a great option now that we seeing more counties and cities approve ADU's and financing options for them.

The 20% down CA loan program that just came out is really interesting but I’m not sure if it applies to nonowner occupied buyers. I think it’s only for first time homebuyers that are owner occupying the subject property. That option would make sense if you were to househack it: live in it and rent out the adu and then refinance out and move on to the next property.

I’d talk to Grant, he does an excellent job going over these types of strategies and asks good questions to help see what makes the most sense for your financial situation.

Hope that helps!