New to real estate investing- Ocala, Florida

[Ben Owens]

Hello all,

I am 27 years old, currently employed as a System Administrator at a medical facility in Ocala, Fl. I am looking to begin investing with a multifamily home(preferably 3-4 units) in the area using an FHA loan, or possibly a SFR that can be converted to a multifamily home using a 201k loan. Idea would be live there for a year, refinance, and use a new FHA to acquire another property, rinse repeat(hopefully?). Currently attempting to factor in all expenses including management and maintenance into calculations on deals and still have positive cash flow. I am looking to eventually meet up with active real estate members in the area. Once my feet are wet, I plan on possibly getting into house flipping on the side.

I will live in the Ocala, Florida area for at least another year and hope to maximize the time here, and being fairly centrally located in Florida, could have opportunities to invest in other locations around the state. End goal is expanding my portfolio and diversifying the types of property in different regions, in an attempt to secure my retirement and eventual financial freedom.

Any connections, associates, partners, friends to be made along the way are much welcomed, as are any advice, tips, tricks, pointers, etc. Feel free to get in contact with me, add me as a colleague, I am always interested in talking and discussing things, even if you are not in my area/region.

Check out my profile for more background info.

If you made it to the bottom of this post,

Thanks for reading, I hope to hear from you about your experiences and advice!

*Disclaimer* I am new to real estate investing, very interested in the idea of house hacking, and while I may sound overly optimistic, I am more and more understanding the risk associated with real estate, and will do my best to cover all points of due diligence before jumping in. This post is not meant to solicit, nor is it asking / requesting for a mentor, if you reach out to me it is because you have read my post / profile and would like to talk more with me.