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Updated over 11 years ago,
First property.
Ok here's the problem. I live in a very small college town (Starkville Mississippi), populations approximately 27k with college being approximately 19k. I'm now a single dad of 2 boys which are 11 and 9 years of age. I live with my mom now. Well was between there and My girlfriends before them. I've had them for almost a years now. Furthermore I have been reading up on real estate for years now and even gave wholesaling a shot which I failed. I did put 3 deals under contract which all three reneged after the lawyer took 3 weeks to give a title report on 2 and 2.5 weeks on 1of them (no title companies here). Furthermore he wouldn't return any of my calls so I would have to spontaneously pop up unannounced 2 or three times a day just to get in touch with him. After the third deal went bad I decided to just fall back for a while and wait until I could buy a house under FHA which I am about to do now. Now there is another lawyer which was referred to me but she took 3 weeks to return my call initially so I passed on her. I contacted like 30 lawyers and non of them specialized in real estate. They handle anything from dui's to real estate. All websites for comps are any surrounding areas are useless here. I work at Walmart with my income being 20k a year which makes it hard to save but have managed to save 5k. I was pr-approved for 90k and thought I was on the right track to building and empire. Was intending on buying a triplex but just found out from my realtor that there are only 2 properties here in the price range of my per-approval. One is 82k which rents for $500.00 a month (WHich I feel comfortable in raising the rent by $50.00) And another one which is 79k (which is pretty much is the same situation but wasn't built on a slab) All have long term tenants ranging from 21 years to 4 years. I've heard the 50% and 2% rule which these to not meet the criteria of neither. I've heard other investors say that they wouldn't stay next to their tenants but honestly I don't care about any of that. Guess you could say when you come from where I come from that's that's possibly one of the least of your worries. But right now I'm confused in what I should do in this situation. Obviously I will offer less thinking 62k for the lower one and 66k for the higher one. Yet still this isn't a killer deal. but it will sorta pay for it by itself. Just confused as in how I should handle this being that I work over night as a stocker and will need for my mom or dad to watch my sons so moving to the next town to invest isn't and option. Besides that, they are pretty much the same as my current town/city. Should I offer are what? It would be a decent return on my money being that I only have to put down 3.5% and not 20%. what should I do. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Oh and my goal is to grow my portfolio to 50 units are better in the next 10 yeas so I'm looking for the best bang for my buck. Thanks in advance.