New investor looking for guidance to buy first property.

[Clemens Georg]

Hello All,

I'm excited to be here! I'm currently a Consulting Engineer for a IT company. However, I have been extremely interested in real estate investing over the past month or so. My goal is to create passive income and then eventually turn this into a full time job for myself. I know i have a long road ahead of me to able to achieve this goal, but I'm very motivated to make it happen. I think I'm still 4-5 months out on closing on my first property so I can get all of my ducks in a row. 

I'm looking for guidance specific to financing my first property and what market I should do it in. I'm currently located in Morrison, CO. As most of you probably know, real estate is not exactly affordable in Colorado. Due to this I was thinking a market outside of Colorado would be a better approach. I'm not sure how feasible that it is, but that is why I'm on here asking the experts. As far as financing my first property, I would like to tap into the 250000 equity i have built in my current home. I'm not sure what the best route is here. Cash out refi does not make a whole lot of sense since I'm in at the low 3's. has anyone used a HEL or HEI loan to finance a property? what other options are there? 

Another obstacle is limiting my personal liability. I have read LLC's are not the best to buy real estate with it being difficult to get loans from banks due the limited liability. should I put these properties under my name, or should create some sort of corporation/llc to put my properties under.

Thank you in advance for any guidance and advice. I'm excited to be here and start my real estate investing journey.

// Clemens Georg