New from Northwest / Toledo Ohio

[Landon Bleau]

Hello BP! My name is Landon and I've been a member of BiggerPockets for a while now and love reading the different forums and gaining valuable information that everyone is so willing to share to help others.  I'm currently attending the University of Toledo studying Finance & Professional Sales but I'll be graduating in May this year and have accepted a job in the corporate world starting mid-May. I'm looking to start investing in real estate right upon graduation :) Not entirely sure what type of real estate investing I'd like to get into yet, but with a W2 job and not a lot of capital, I figured house hacking would be the easiest to start out with - any thoughts?

I've been listening to as many BP podcasts as I can and reading every business/real estate book I can get my hands on, would appreciate any book recommendations you have! I would love the opportunity to connect with anyone in the area to hear more about what you do. 

Very grateful for the BiggerPockets community and wish everyone the best of luck in 2020, hope it's your best year yet!

[Daniel Kramer]

@Landon Bleau

Congrats on graduating and your new job. I am also a Toledo grad with a full time salary job.

You are 110% correct - house hack. There is no better way to get started so that you can a) build equity b) save on rent so you can pocket your salary for investing. I wish I would have known this earlier and I tell every young person that will listen to do this. You have a short window of Independence where this is socially acceptable before a lady comes into the picture.

Speaking of socially acceptable, do what your friends won't and live like you're broke for a bit. Cook and pack your lunches. Prioritize your debts and get loans paid off.

Some further suggestions regarding the house hack. A small down payment is OK. It's not risky if you get a good deal and you'll want to have some cash on hand to make repairs. As nice as it is to let others pay your mortgage, you will have the responsibility of maintaining a respectable place for those people to live. Getting approved for the loan might be the hardest part of this as a young person with little or no W2 history. It's all about debt-to-income ratio and credit score, so do everything you can to improve those.