Pastor, new to this concept, but excited to learn more

[Josh Scroggins]

Nice to meet you all!  I pastor a church in Springfield.  My wife and I have been saving for a while for a down payment for our first house.  Instead of buying one for ourselves and our first child, we are looking at purchasing a house in Eugene near the college and renting out rooms to students.  I have heard from another real estate investor in this area that this is the most profitable kind of rental in this area.  We have saved about half what we wanted to have for a down payment, but are mostly waiting for the market to change before entering.  Right now, I'm just learning and exploring. I am curious to see if anyone on this forum has experience with this kind of rental.

[Josiah Kellerman]

Quote from @Josh Scroggins:

Thanks!  I had no idea I would get any tax breaks for being a pastor.  I'd love to learn more about that.

As for waiting, we aren't waiting on interest rates, because as you said, we can always refinance.  We are waiting on prices to drop.  In this part of the country (can't speak for anywhere else) prices have skyrocketed for years.  I feel like it's a bubble and will pop soon...especially given the interest rates and inflation now.  I've already seen prices flatline in the last few months and many houses are starting to drop their prices (no one is buying because of interest rates, I guess).  Inflation and cost of living is up so high right now that I suspect many people will not be able to continue to afford these overpriced homes they bought at 8% interest.  I have a pretty strong feeling that we are going to see a lot of those homes flood the market...I just don't know when, so we are continuing to save each month and wait for the right moment.  Granted, I am fairly new to real estate, so my feelings here might be way off.

I'm excited to learn about this type of business and I have so many questions, but I'm just getting started with reading Brandon Turner's book "Rental Property Investing" and reading through this forum to glean what I can.

 Pastor Josh,

I am a local investor and real estate agent who lives in Springfield. I fear that the plan you have to wait for prices to drop is going to take several years. A thought for you would be to buy a personal residence with lots of rooms in the area you like. Live there for a year and move out and rent out the rooms. You can do this with just 3%-5% down payment. 15-30% down on investment properties in Oregon is tough with so little cash flow.