Hello all! My name is Cesar and I am originally from Puerto Rico but have been living in Virginia for over 20 years. Recently, my mother has indicated her wish to sell the family property where I grew up in Isabela, Puerto Rico. Given that I would pay 3/4 of the property's assessed value I think this could be a great opportunity. There is a single family home that was divided and one half has been rented and an ad on small "house" that has also been rented mostly long term. My plan is to add 2 - 6 shipping container type of small houses and an above ground pool at some point to make at least a section of the property short/mid term rentals. But I would remain open to long-term rental as an option as this seems like a more stable option in terms of income, again this may be my inexperience talking.

However, I have always been somewhat risk averse and investing in real estate is always a big venture, in my opinion/experience, in terms of capital. In this case my plan is to use a HELOC on my primary residence to purchase the property in Puerto Rico.

Recently a friend recommended I looked into BiggerPockets as I was telling them about my "concept of a plan" and maybe he could also notice my hesitation. Thus, my main goal joining this forum is to try to gain confidence in the decision to get into real estate investment and better understand the risks that I may not be considering due to my lack of experience in the field.

I would love to hear from other more experienced in the field about alternative ways to financing that I should consider besides the HELOC, maybe also hear from investors on how the process of bringing investors onboard works. I am also planning on using a property manager as I have an 8 - 5 full time job. Also, I have heard about the benefits of having an LLC set up to manage rental properties but not sure if this is advisable at my stage (e.g., not a lot of properties to manage).

I am certain, I have many more questions and things I should consider and look forward to reading many of the informative posts on the website and look forward to hearing your advice, thoughts and/or questions.

Thanks!
César

https://www.puertorico.com/isabela/beaches