Starting out real estate investing in Dallas

[Soren Thomsen]

Hello my name is Soren and I currently live in Dallas, TX. Two partners and I are looking to make our first investment in a multifamily rental unit. We are all around 2 years out of college. I work in corporate finance, one works in construction management and the other in computer science.

I have a few questions for you guys

What sort of loan terms should we expect to be given? 

What percentage of a down payment will a bank typically require? 

Since we are working as partners is there any advantage to forming an LP or other business type to purchase a property?

We are in the very beginning phase of forming out business plan. What are some absolute things we should have on our list of things to do before we begin hunting for properties?

Thanks for all your help

[Mark S.]

Hey @Soren Thomsen,

If you and your partners are interested in a multi-family I would probably suggest starting with a 4-plex or less.  They are easier, albiet hard, to find than a larger apartment complex in the area and will offer you a good introduction into property management before you bite off a big chunk.

Like Matthew mentioned you can also do conventional or FHA financing on these size units. If you or your partners have never owned a home before it may be a great place to start since you would only need to put 3.5% down. You would not be able to purchase the property in the name of an LLC though.

There is a real estate meet up in Plano I am hosting on April 20th at 12p at The Shops at Legacy.  We had some great networking there last time and you can get some first hand accounts from people who are investing in the area.  I will include the link below.

If you are interested in seeing what the loan situation would look like feel free to reach out to me.

Best of luck to you!

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/521/topics/286233-plano-shops-at-legacy-meetup?page=2#p1895162