Young Beginning Investor In Need of a Creative Lenders Advice

[Jonah White]

I've been doing everything I can over the last two years of my life to prepare me to buy my first property this year in 2018. From the day I turned 18 I began creating credit for myself to make this happen. My short term goal is to purchase a duplex and house hack it for the first year until I'm able to purchase another next year. Over the last year I have saved the cash for a down payment, have been reading plenty books and articles, listening to countless podcasts, and have finally started reaching out and creating connections with other local investors. I'm know that I'm ready to buy. I know that this is the next big step in becoming financially independent. 

The current issue I keep running into is that I work a base pay (12/hr) + commissioned (avg 8/hr) job the bank is requesting a two year employment history. I currently have a year and a half total with the same company. The Friday I graduated from high school the following Monday I was already working full time in sales, so I could get started as soon as possible. 

My question is what can I do to get my first deal funded? I have excellent credit, 10K in cash saved and $0 in debt. I'm not wanting to buy a whole lot of house, only about $100,000 or possibly less for my first deal. 

Is there a way to just use my base pay of $12/hr to qualify now?

Would one and a half years of employment history be enough to use just the base pay of $12/hr? If not, could I use the case of being in high school for the other 6 months of that?

What can I do to get this ball rolling now?

Is my only option to wait until I have two years of history?

I'm getting itchy to pull the trigger and invest. I've spoken with a few lenders locally and I've noticed that they've had less of an interest in helping me when they find out that I'm 19, don't have 2 years of history with the commission, and don't want to give them my social to begin qualification. I feel stuck and don't know where to go from here to get this going. Any advice is gratefully appreciated. Please let me know if additional clarification on anything is needed.

I'm in Milwaukee, WI.

[Pat Parrillo]

Jonah, great to hear you're on the path to getting started in the exciting venture of real estate investing. Sounds like you're doing most of the right leg work to get started. 

You mentioned you don't want to give the banks your SSN to start the process. Is there a reason you don't want to provide them with your SSN? You can ask that they do a "soft check" which will get the process started and won't affect your credit score like a "hard check" would. 

 Without the bank being able to perform any pre-qualification with a credit check, or soft credit check, you may be at a stand still. I want to help anyway possible and I think one of the first questions you can ask the lenders is if it's a hard or soft credit check and they can give you an answer on where you stand. As for 1.5 years vs 2 years of employment you can either have a family member or someone co-sign, as it sounds like you're very responsible and you may have friends or family willing to vouch for you. Also keep in mind you may not find the property that's right for you in the next 6 months either, no guarantee, especially in this competitive market. So it may be worth staring to learn and do your due diligence about they type property and neighborhoods you want to invest in no matter what the lenders say as even if the worst case scenario is that the banks say you need 2 years of employment so that in the meantime you can get to know where you want to invest and what a good deal looks like and in 6 months you'll be able to pull the trigger right away even if you have to wait for the 2 years of employment to take effect. 

Keep educating yourself and making connections and don't let yourself or the lenders stand in the way of your success. Keep contacting different lenders and you may be pleasantly surprised at the lenders responses once you provide the information their requesting. Best wishes!