Aspirations from Houston

[James Mills]

Hello all. My name is James Mills, and I am from Houston. When I first moved into the city from the suburbs about 5 years ago(I grew up in Clear Lake), I met a friend through a neighbor who had bought a fourplex and was living out of one and renting/managing the others. The idea fascinated me, and since then I try to keep in touch with the gentleman once in a blue moon to check on his progress. He has since opened a small restaurant in the greenway plaza area (he used to manage a small restaurant in downtown), and is in the market for his second fourplex. 

Fast forward 5 years. I stumbled across bigger pockets in May after finding out how decent my credit scores were (I'm in the low 700's) and looking into recreating a similar setup for myself. I began listening to the mutlifamily podcasts and started browsing various websites for real estate in Houston. 

My current status is very early in this entire scheme. I have modest/good credit, but low income, so I am hoping to find myself a duplex/triplex that I can utilize an FHA loan to get into. I recently started banking with USAA, due to my stepfather being a veteran, and have heard that they are incredibly helpful when inquiring about financial advice and planning for your future. My hope is to get with them and have them help me formulate a plan on how to best start socking away money towards a first home.

Would love to hear from other Houstonion multifamily owners on how to best tackle this aspiration of mine. I want someone paying my mortgage.

[Doug McLeod]

Welcome. I am with USAA also. Great service for banking and insurance, but their financial advice is likely to be fairly conventional: mutual funds, diversification, etc. You can likely afford the downpayment (3%) on a FHA loan already or with minimal savings, so if you can find a 2-4plex in an area you like at a below market price with enough cashflow to cover your mortgage and have some additional cash to enhance your savings toward more property, just start looking.

Check out Brandon Turner's blog on Hacking Your Housing and listen to the podcasts.