Planning To House Hack After Graduating College

[Jerry Chamnichanh]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on BiggerPockets and I would like to introduce myself and my goals. I have no practical experience in real estate and so any advice, recommendations, or referrals are appreciated. Please feel free to chime in!

My name is Jerry and I am an undergraduate student. I will be finishing my degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering this upcoming May 2018. I have not secured employment yet but I will be applying to companies in and around Buffalo, NY. I hope I can get a job here as it is my hometown where many of my family and friends live, but if not, I would be willing to move to a city that has a population of at least 100k.

My first goal in real estate is to first house hack or find a multiplex in which I will live in a unit. After things stabilize and I feel that I have learned the practicalities and responsibilities of owning rentals, I would like to expand.

To carry out my first goal, I plan to save for a year once I start earning money from employment. During this time, I will be learning as much as possible about real estate. I have already been listening to podcasts, reading books, and reading articles in my spare time. I do not know how much I can really prepare for the first deal but I will do so regardless.

So, as someone who is completely new to all of this, what is it that you would recommend I do to prepare myself for real estate investments? I will have a year and a half before I pull my first trigger. If you have any specific podcasts, books, articles, etc. in which you believe I should focus on, please list them.

I hope to hear your responses.

[Daniel Ortiz]

Hey Jerry Chamnichanh

Welcome to the BP community! I can relate to your situation quite well. I too graduated with an Engineering degree and am from New York. In addition, my 2018 goal is to purchase my first multi family investment property to house hack.

Few things: Well done pulling off the double major. This should land you a well paying job out of school. My advice would be not to limit yourself to Buffalo, New York. Being open to relocation makes you very marketable to employers and opens the door for tons of additional opportunities. I’d caution you to be careful when selecting your full time job in that you should vet companies that offer good Work Life balance. Hard to gauge until you actually work somewhere, but if you’re working 80 hours a week at a W2 it’ll really eat into your time to spend on real estate investing. Begin to think about whether or not you want this to be a side hustle or a fill time gig at some point in the future. Will help you develop a sound strategy from the start.

Second piece of advice as someone just beginning to dive into real estate investing would be to develop your personal financial statement. Map out your personal income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and calculate your net worth. It’s very helpful seeing how much money you got coming in vs going out. Allows you to forecast how much you can save in the future which will help guide you when planning your first purchase. Don’t worry about what stage you are in your savings/money making situation right now. Mine tells me I have a TON of student loan debt, but it also tells me I have a chance to jump into real estate in 2018.

Lastly, I’d just say continue to educate and save!

Dan