Intro - Starting out game plan

[Caroline Knight]

Hello everyone! I have been listening off and on to the biggerpockets podcast and having "we should get into real estate" talks with my partner for about a year now. I recently picked up The Book on Rental Property Investing and we have decided we are all in!

We are currently located in GA, but my partner recently applied for a job in Illinois. Offers go out for the job in one month (end of Aug)! If all goes well, we are hoping to use this opportunity to our advantage and sell our home in GA, buy a duplex in IL, and house hack as our first rental property.

This course of action makes the most sense to me based on being new to the game, somewhat limited finances, and already going to make a big move. I would love to hear any comments and opinions from everyone here!

[Konstantin Ginzburg]

@Caroline Knight

House hacking is an amazing way to get into the real estate game. It opens up so many options for you such as primary residence financing and an easier intro into property management. One piece of advice I would offer that will hopefully help you is to heavily focus on location when you are looking for property in Illinois to house-hack. Targeting specific locations will allow you to enter in different markets that will increase the chances of you being able to acquire tenants easily. For example; targeting properties near major universities will allow you to tap into student housing tenants, targeting properties near hospitals will allow you to tap into the travel medical professional market, targeting properties near major attractions will allow you to tap into tourism and short term rental options. If that last example is a goal; be sure to research the regulations for STRs in the market you want to enter as there has been a lot of activity around the country recently regarding regulations on STRs. Welcome to BiggerPockets and good luck on your investing journey!