New member, 25 y/o, South Florida

[Marissa Mallamo]

Hi all,

I'm usually just a lurker on these types of things but something about how friendly and helpful everybody is on BP made me want to introduce myself right away!

I'm 25 years old in South Florida. My boyfriend and I own a 2/2.5 townhouse in Delray Beach, close to Atlantic Ave. We have lived here since March 2014 and always planned on it being our starter home and renting it out one day, but we now have the opportunity to make it an investment property sooner then we thought and rent it out. We put a decent amount of work into it and want to let it appreciate more before selling, we also want to get a feel for how we like being landlords as our long term goal is either flipping, buying and holding or maybe both, who knows?! Everybody has gotta start somewhere, right :)

Currently the townhouse is mortgaged to me only, and he can get a VA loan for our new SFH which is brand new construction 4/3 from a great builder and what we believe to be a great price (did tons of comps). Homes in the community are selling for the same amount as this, and are much older (its a small scale builder who has been building there since 2001, not a big name builder who builds hundreds of homes at once and then leaves)

I'm a bit apprehensive and nervous for a few reasons. Emotional attachment to the townhouse, hearing renter horror stories, the bigger responsibility and payment of a SFH, etc. However we feel like now is the time, as prices are only going up and up and interest rates are so low. We can can get 3.25% with VA right now!

Ever since my first job at 14 I socked away all of my little paychecks with the goal of buying a house and never having to rent, and made it happen right out of college and leaving home. So although I feel nervous, real estate is always been something that has caught my interest from a young age and I'm excited to take the next step of the journey.

Happy Monday everybody!

[Adam Schooley]

@Marissa Mallamo

Don't let your nerves stop you from moving on with your dream.  Fears hold everyone back at some point. It sounds like you've done your research. So make the leap and you will look back and laugh at this down the road. If you need some advice on rentals message me. I'm  in Fort Lauderdale and own rental property there.