Real Estate Investing Step 1

[Grant Maxey]

Hello biggerpockets. I recently joined Biggerpockets and I am excited to be a part of this community. I am interested in accumulating long term single family rentals and eventually want to get into larger multi family properties. I understand that there are endless ways to begin investing although I was hoping to get some input from people that have been in my situation before and may do things differently if they were to start over from the beginning. Thanks so much in advance!

I am 25 years old and live in the Tulsa OK area. I bought my first home in April 2019 for $138,500 with 3.5% down and a fixed conventional mortgage at 4.75% APR (monthly payment of $1,049.00).

With hopes to remodel, I received a 0% interest cash loan of $35,000 from my parents with an expectation to re-pay them within about 5 years from the time the re-model is completed. After looking through local comps I expect the ARV to be around $190,000.

I am hoping to get some advice on how I can best use my current situation to my advantage for kickstarting my real estate investments and getting lending opportunities for my next property. I definitely have some ideas in mind (such as taking out a home-equity loan) although I wanted to keep it simple so that I can hear everyones honest approaches/opinions.

I have provided additional information below just in case it could be helpful with your advice. Thanks!

Annual W2 income: $70,000

Current credit score: 751

Savings account: $6,000

Roth 401k: $8,000

[Kyle Spearin]

Hi @Grant Maxey you should be proud of yourself for being 25 and a home owner. Welcome to the community! In terms of your next moves, I can only speak from my approach (which is a bit conservative) and opinion so keep in mind this is just 1 idea and food for thought.

Given your economic circumstances, I would recommend completing your rehab, living there for a year and then renting this home out (live in flip/house hack). After the year is up living in your current house, I recommend buying another house using an FHA or other low down payment vehicle and making it your primary residence. You could also use a 203k loan if you wanted another fixer upper with financing built in for rehabs. Over time, house hacking has huge benefits. I'd be happy to talk more if you decide on this approach.

Best of luck!