Newbie from Chattanooga, TN / Curretnly living in SoCal

[Chris Porter]

Hello everyone,

My name is Chris Porter. I'm a very motivated newbie. Currently living in Southern California interested in creating a portfolio back home in Chattanooga, TN. My intent is have a solid real estate foundation in place by the time I get out of the Marine Corps in mid 2019. This will include both rental properties and Fix n' Flip properties. I will be pursing this a full time endeavor.

Currently I have no personal real estate experience, however, I am reading every book/blog I can find and very actively seeking as much knowledge as I can through other's experiences.

A little info on my current situation and a request for some guidance from those of you who can offer a little direction for starting out here...

I'm 25 years old and I'm an officer in the Marine Corps. I'll be deploying soon and once I return I will have ONE year left on contract here in Southern California. Upon return form this deployment I will be debt free and have significant capital to dive head first in my first investment. my goal during this final year on contract will be to establish as much of a real estate investing foundation as I can in order to enable full time attention once I separate from the Marine Corps.

I would like to gage your opinions on how best to dive into this world of real estate investing upon my return from deployment.

I'll have anywhere from 30-40k in capital devoted to starting this endeavor. Based on your experience, would you recommend starting out with a rental property and using that capital for down payment and having the rest in reserve for a strong cash position? or would you recommend pursing a Fix n' Flip property? I want to be aggressive about this.

I also intend to purchase a home here in CA with my VA loan after deployment. Once I return home after my separation I would like to maintain the property and rent it out.

Sorry for the novel! I'm just very eager and excited to get started on this next chapter in my life.

I'm very happy to have stumbled upon this website and I look forward to being apart of the community here!

Chris

[James Letchford]

@Michael Ramos -- First off, thanks for the vote.

Full disclosure:  I'm in the middle of my first BRRRR project and about to start my second.

With that said, here some answers to your questions:

1. Although I do have an LLC, the property is not currently owned under its name. It was difficult to get traditional financing (I used a HomeStyle loan for this property) under the LLC.
2. I do plan on putting the property under the name of my LLC at the refi. I'm hoping to work with a portfolio lender that will allow me a little more flexibility on doing so.
3. There is a seasoning period. I need to make a minimum of six mortgage payments before being able to refinance.
4. Like I mentioned above, I haven't refinanced yet, but feel pretty confident that I will be able to. I have an appraisal that gives me ~$65k in equity, so more than enough LTV for the refi.

I can keep you posted on how it goes, but here is my major takeaway so far (and this isn't hard advice to find if you're on BP):

• Buy Right: I'm making my money on the purchase I made. Because I was able to get a "C-" property in a "B to B+" area at 50% of ARV, I'm sitting pretty for the third "R" in BRRRR.