New Investor from Jersey City

[Noah Goldenberg]

Greetings BP Community!

By way of introduction, my name is Noah Goldenberg and I'm a newbie to the real estate investment world but eager to learn and begin buy and hold investing.

I've read several books and listened to a couple dozen BP Podcasts and feel like I'm just beginning to scratch the surface on my real estate education, but also am hearing several podcast interviewees list Taking Action as their top differentiator between the most successful investors and the rest of the pack - so rather than wait I wanted to introduce myself and connect with others in my area I can learn from (and hopefully eventually share my knowledge with!) as I look to make my first investment purchase.

A little about me: I live in downtown Jersey City, NJ (near Grove st) and bought my first property last October 2015 as a primary residence - a 2 bed 1 bath condo. Pretty traditional 20% down 30 year fixed rate mortgage from a national bank. I did also come close to an investment purchase back in 2008 in Virginia, under contract on a foreclosed single family 4-bedroom (I intended to live in one bedroom and rent out the rest to roommates) in northern VA, but at the time I realized I was getting in over my head and decided to hold off (and had a penalty free loophole in the contract I was able to exercise). It seemed like the right call (and the bank ended up selling a few months later 10% lower than my offer) but I realize now I missed out on quite the educational experience of being a landlord over the last 8 years - so this time around I'm looking to pull the trigger and get the ball rolling on my portfolio!

What I'm looking for: I'm still learning about all the many ways of profiting from investment in real estate, but as someone focused on building passive income and long term wealth, as well as being in a situation of having a steady full time income and excellent credit score, my initial plan is to begin acquiring single family or small multi-family residential properties, fix them up, rent them out, and possibly refinance (i.e. the famous BRRR strategy), likely using conventional mortgages for the first ones. I'd begun looking around at multi families in the Bergen-Lafayette, Journal Square, and Jersey City Heights areas, as the small multi families seemed to have better cash flow potential than single families around here - but after listening to some podcasts I am also getting the sense that single families might be a lot easier to manage (less turnover, tenants taking more responsibility/less calls and issues...) so I'm really open to both types for my first deal - whatever has numbers that work. I'd also like to get to know the Newark Ironbound neighborhood as well as other nearby areas (Hamilton, Kearny, Union City, East Orange / City of Orange, etc) to see if I can find a very low priced fixer upper as a good low-risk high-education way to get started. Then hoping to continue purchasing a property or two a year and ramp up over time as I get the hang of things - aiming to achieve a goal of financial independence through my recurring rental income covering 100% of my living expenses in the shortest time possible (while continuing to work a full time job).

I'm also interested in hearing people's opinions on whether to go solo vs partnering with a more experienced investor on a first deal to learn the ropes, as well as how to best find agents who get the investor mindset and know some of these locations, and glad to network with others in the Northern Jersey area. Feel free to reach out and look forward to getting to know the folks here in the BP Community!