New member from Dallas, TX

[Bryce Tritt]

Hello BP community,

My name is Bryce Tritt and after listening to the podcasts during my commute to work for the pasts couple weeks, I finally got around to becoming a member. I grew up in Arkansas and moved to Dallas after finishing school a couple years ago. Real estate has always been an interest of mine but after spending two years working as a financial auditor servicing asset management firms with real estate investments its become a passion. The student loans are paid off, and now I'm looking to quit paying rent and find my first investment property.

[Jon Holdman]

Hi @Bryce Tritt and welcome to the site.

You realize those are two completely different things, right? Spending money on a place where you live is an expense, not an investment. An investment property generates income.

I know people sometimes get wrapped around the axle saying they don't want to "throw money away on rent" for their own housing. But if you buy a place to live in with a mortgage you'll be throwing money away on interest. Its really a math problem to figure out what's the cheaper alternative. In addition, when you buy a place to live in you have a LOT of transaction costs. If a year or two from now you decide you want to move somewhere else and need to sell your residence you will get killed by these costs. Don't assume you can just turn any property into a rental. Most properties make crummy rentals. Any properties that make good rentals may not meet your criteria for a place to live.

In many cases, renting is the cheaper alternative to owning and gives you flexibility that owning doesn't. Nothing at all wrong, IMHO, with renting a place to live and investing your money in rental properties.