Best advice for first time home owner

[Danielle Yellam]

Hello BP! My name is Danielle, I am 33 and looking to buy my first house. I am a flight attendant living in Seattle, Wa and want to start investing in real estate. My goal by the time I am retired is to have rental properties for passive income. 

I know location, location, LOCATION is the #1 thing when buying real estate. Schools being #2. However, I live in Seattle, the market here is high. I want to buy my first house and turn it into a rental one day, or buy a duplex/MIL/ADU that I can live in and rent the other half out. I know AIRBNB is popular here which is another option.

If you lived in Washington State and were thinking of starting to invest in real estate, where would you look? What type of property would you buy? Should I look in a different state where the market is cheaper? Should I start buying in a place I want to retire? PLEASE HELP!!!

Danielle

[Steve DellaPelle]

Hi @Danielle Yellam!

@Grant Rothenburger is correct...House Hacking sounds like a great way for you to enter the REI game. My advice to you is to look at the areas within a 30 mile radius to Seattle or wherever you work and look for duplexes, 3-family and 4-family homes. I live in an expensive area (Boston) but was able to find a city on the outskirts with a significantly smaller purchase price...it is a four family home and the numbers work great!

As a first time home buyer you may be eligible for programs such as FHA that allow only 3.5% down!

After that you will learn a ton from experience and the first deal typically snowballs into the next and so on and so forth.

Best of luck!