New In The Investing World

[Zach Ranney]

Good Afternoon All! 

I am a brand new to the investing world. I have listened to many podcasts on the biggerpockets podcast. I just recently bought my first property in Nov '23 just outside of Chicago, IL with an FHA loan. I am currently fixing up a few things and plan to get into a conventional loan (within 12-24 months) via a cash out refi and put that equity into funding my next property. To those seasoned investors is this the right move? Should I have gone a different route? I wanted to get a multifamily property and house hack it but the offers that were coming in were way over what i was able to do. Any and all advice is awesome as i want to soak up as much information as i can to build my portfolio.

[Jonathan Klemm]

Hey @Zach Ranney - First of all I started the exact same way as you...I found BiggerPockets and listened to every single podcast!!  Loved the idea of real estate!

Congratulations on your Chicago purchase!!  That is awesome.  

In my opinion, the refi is a good option if the numbers work...your other option would be a home equity line of credit.  however, I think the first step is to double-check with your lender as @Andrew Postell mentioned, and see what is possible.