First time loan / real estate strategy

[Liam Welch]

My wife and I will be moving into Texas in March as i have just been granted a green card, and will initially be living with her parents. We will be coming over with enough cash to put a 20/25% down payment on a property priced around 120k. Neither of us are W2 workers as we have lived in the UK for the last two years thus will not even have US tax returns to show banks. I have a job lined up for when i get the Texas but i will be hired via my new LLC (formed this month).

Our plan is this.

Firstly we want to house hack using a duplex by using an FHA loan. We would look to live here for a year whilst saving money to be in a position to buy another property using perhaps a conventional loan so we can then start the BRRRR process and start adding to our rental portfolio, perhaps we would even convert the FHA loan into a conventional loan on the first property and then repeat the FHA loan / househack process on a new property. Then once we have been working in the US long enough and have tax returns to show this we will begin to purchase more property to build that rental portfolio and eventually move into our own place that isn't a duplex.

So my questions are:

1) With the above being our plan does this sound feasible with us not being W2 workers and us also not planning to be W2 workers. My wife is training to become an agent and i will be working for a company who will hire my LLC (newly formed for when i arrive in march).

2) What will banks think when we first walk in asking for a loan on a property with our current situation. Would we need a co signer to help with this situation? Will we be laughed out the door?

3) Due to our lack of income in the states how important is cash reserves when applying for a loan, will they still loan out if they can see you have cash reserves but don't have the 2 year tax returns to illustrate US income.

4) Is there any other route you would recommend, taking into consideration our situation, when starting our real estate investing journey.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Liam & Lexi