New member - new to real estate.

[Michael Brown]

Hello. My name is Michael Brown. I just signed up to BiggerPockets last night. I have no experience in real estate but was always interested in buying multifamily property for quite some time. My hold back was a combination of fear and a misconception as I always though purchasing property required large amounts of cash for down payments. Therefore I never entertained the idea of actually owning a multifamily property. I've had ideas, desire, and knew what I wanted to do but always procrastinated. Until now. 

My wife and I are renters. We both work but don't make allot of money. We been renting from the same property owner for the last 3 years. I didn't know much about him other than he owned a few 6 family buildings and he was my landlord. From the very beginning my landlord always conveyed the idea of buying property even on low income. I never really listened to him until recently after reading a few articles about fha, 203k's, and USDA. And I have be honest I am intrigued. I've been researching the guidelines to qualify for 203k's. And it seems to fit exactly what I've always wanted to fulfill as a property owner. My landlord seems to think I could do it. He's kinda been trying to mentor me in the process. Through is direction I've got a bank account open with a secure credit now. All of witch I've never had. I requested all three of my credit reports and he's reviewed them. He says my credit is not that bad. But what was interesting to me is what I discovered in what career field he's in. In an email exchange I noticed my landlords e-signature said he's a licensed loan originator for a mortgage company. 

So before I end this post I'd like to add that I began reading The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing. My ultimate primary goal is to purchase a 3 or 4 family with a FHA loan, live rent free, rent to low and medium income, and reinvest whatever money is leftover. My goal is to do this in the next 15 months. But my short term goals consist of building a solid network and foundation of knowledge. I'm dedicated to learning how to be prepared for qualifying for an FHA loan.

I'm open to advice and thanks for reading.

[Lumi Ispas]

@Michael Brown , Congratulations on jumping in. Wait until you buy the building. You believe now that is the free rent that's the big deal. You'll notice after owning the building and filing your income tax how much money you'll get back because you are a landlord: thousands of dollars extra per year, you'll notice how your tenant's rents will pay your mortgage down and as the property goes up in value, so will your equity, the money you have in your property.

Just one more incentive, even though I don't think you need it: a home owner's net worth is 45 times larger than the net worth of a tenant. Therefore, for each $1000 that a tenant has in savings, a homeowner has $45,000 in his property and/or cash!

Good luck to you!