Please HELP! New to real estate investing!

[Justin Earley]

Hello my name is Justin and i am new to the bigger pockets family. I have a wife and one daughter. My wife and I are looking to invest in rental properties. We are both 32 years old and currently live in the Michigan area right outside of Detroit. We both work full time demanding jobs and have student loan debt as well. We recently heard the podcast Ep. 276 about early retirement and it was like the answer that we have been looking for. We both wake up in the morning dreading our daily routines of going to jobs that we both hate but pays well. We purchased our current single family home for 78k three years ago and basically didn't have to do any updates. I recently checked the comps in the area and we are looking at about 30k in equity. 

We have been talking about getting into real estate for years now but we never made the decision to "vacuum the truck". Me making this post is our vacuuming the truck, well somewhat... haha. I was hoping that someone could give us some pointers on finding money to purchase our first investment property. We have some money in 401k's and a small savings but not enough to purchase a 4 unit our larger building that we desire. Just looking for more direction on this. I also recently started a LLC with hopes of diving into the real estate biz head first but i need some help getting over the hump. We have so many questions. Should i even invest as an LLC or should i do it as a regular loan. IDK PLEASE HELPPPP!!!

[Account Closed]

Hi Justin, 

If I was in your shoes, I would consider turning your current property into a rental unit and using the equity in the home to purchase a multi-family through, FHA or Freddie Mac's Homepossible mortgage to only put down 3%-5%. And then using the House Hacking Method in which you would live in 1 unit and rent out the rest.

Hope this helps!