New member looking to start

[Laurence Mendonca]

Hey all my name is Laurence I’m a brand new member of np I  live in Orlando fl I’ve listened to about 100 episodes of the podcast I have zero real estate experience I’m looking to buy my first property to house hack this year I have a decent amount of money in the savings account I could use for a down payment also have a good credit score I don’t have a high monthly income unfortunately but just looking for any advice or tips or friends to bounce ideas off I’m debating which market would be better between the central Florida area or the Tampa area I also would love to get involved in flips at some point 

[James Carlson]

@Laurence Mendonca

Welcome. 

If you're house-hacking, you can put down as little as 5% (or even 3.5% for an FHA loan). So the barrier to entry is not as high as traditional investments. That said, with today's rates, every increment of extra mortgage is way costlier than it was four years ago during the sub-3%-rate Covid days.

So ... if possible put down as much as you can. If you can get to 20%, you start to see small interest rate reductions. 

As far as which market, I'll leave that to realtors and investors in Florida. Either way, don't overthink it. Do your research and run some numbers, but if you can buy a 4br house, rent out the other three rooms and be left with a very small mortgage payment, you can start saving for the next one and then rinse and repeat every few years. 

After 8 years or so, you've got three or four properties and the world opens up to you at that point.