First Time Homebuyer/Investor in Utah

[Ryan Perkins]

Almost a year ago, my brother in law pointed out the fact that, for what I was paying each month in rent, I could afford a mortgage. I started thinking about it and realized how much money I was putting directly into the pockets of other people - and for the next several months, I couldn't stop thinking about it. He pointed me towards Bigger Pockets and now, after months of listening to the podcast, reading books on real estate investing, and most recently, purchasing my first house, I'm convinced that I will spend the rest of my life investing in real estate in some shape or form. 

As I mentioned, I purchased my first house at the end of April this year. My goal from day one wasn't to find a home, it was to find an investment. I purchased a good house with room for minor updates and repairs for good price. I'm in an area that is growing exponentially and I foresee that rate of growth increasing even more. I'm renting a room to a friend and considering posting the other spare room for rent on Craiglist. Within the next two years, I'd like to be out of this house and, depending on the market, either rent it out for cash flow (my first choice) or sell it and use the potential profit to find another investment property. 

I have a high level of interest in buy and hold properties (eventually I'd like to have a strong portfolio of residential rentals mixed with a handful of vacation rentals). I'm also interested in conducting some simple (relatively) fix-and-flips to build up cash that will go right back into my buy and hold properties. 

I'd love to hear from other investors in the northern Utah market. What strategies have you tried? What works? What doesn't? I'm finally ready to get involved in the forums and drink from the fountain of knowledge. 

[Becca Summers]

@Ryan Perkins, Welcome to the group! Perkins is my maiden name. I doubt we are related but it's always fun to see. It sounds like you have a great game plan.

I've done house hacking for my first two investments, where we bought the home with low or no money down lived there for a few years then moved out and rented it. I've enjoyed it so far, my second one was more successful as we bought a bank owned put in $20k worth of work and have about $45k in equity. We debate refinancing it and taking equity out but I like the cash flow and reserves built into the home if anything where to change in the market and we had to get out of the home. My advice is do tons of research and move slow and really decide what type of rental you want. It's much easier to quickly analyse a deal at first when you  are focused on one type of property in a certain area. It helps because you know the rent rates, who the renter is, vacancy ect. Then once you've mastered that you can move out to other areas. I hope that helps.