New to real estate investing - Houston, TX

[Anthony Foster]

Hello, my name is Anthony, and I want to start my journey into real estate investing!

I live in Houston, TX, and I work as a personal injury lawyer. I want to use money I earn and put it to work in real estate investments. I want to learn as much as I can about real estate investing, then take action and get started. I have begun listening to the Bigger Pockets podcasts from the beginning and I am have just finished Show 11. I plan on continuing to listen to them all. I have also read "How to Invest in Real Estate: the Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started" and I just bought "The Book on Rental Property Investing." 

I first started looking into Bigger Pockets and real estate investing after checking out the youtube channel of Spencer Cornelia, an old friend of mine. He talked about his real estate investing experiences, and I saw his guest appearance on the Bigger Pockets podcast Show 384. Now that I've been looking through BP, listening to the podcasts, and reading some other books like "Richest Man in Babylon" and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", I have some initial goals for my real estate investing.

(1) I want to buy a home for me to live in. I am currently renting and will want to buy a SFR or multifamily. I would want it to be inside the loop 610, near Museum District or in the Southwest portion of the loop as my work and my girlfriend's work is near the Museum District / med center area. If it is a SFR, I would prefer if it would be able to cash flow if I were to rent it out because if I move from the residence, I could then get money every month. If I can find a multifamily that is good enough on price, I would want to house hack it to have my housing cost be free or at a very reduced rate. I may want to purchase the SFR or multifamily I live in with a Conventional 97 or a FHA mortgage. I believe there is a Conventional 97 loan that has 3% down payment with no income limit but may be wrong on that. I know that for conventional loans, the mortgage insurance is usually a better rate than for FHA mortgage insurance and that it can go away on its own without having to refinance like with a 3.5% down FHA mortgage.

(2) I want to get passive income from my real estate investments to exceed my expenses. To reach that goal, I want to buy some SFRs or multifamily homes that cash flow and have decent Cash on Cash Return on Investment. For buy and hold, if I can purchase homes for $100,000 or $50,000 with down payments of $20,000 or $10,000, I may be able to buy one or two every year. I would like to get pure cash flow of at least $100 per home. Eventually, when I am at 10 mortgages, I would have to figure out what to do then to get more properties or to move into investing in things like apartments. Figuring that out can be for another day. I want to see what I can do to get started.

BRRRR also seems very interesting and powerful although rehabbing a house seems a bit intimidating at this point in time, especially when I am working my 9 to 5 during the workweek.

To reach my goals, I will continue learning about REI through the podcasts, the weekly webinars, real estate books, and joining Houston real estate meetups, either in person or online, to network with local investors, share ideas, and see what they are doing to have success in REI in Houston.

These are my initial thoughts and goals. The methods may change as I learn more about REI and begin to get some experience.

I look forward to my real estate investing journey, interacting with other fellow BP members on the forums, and meeting and networking with local Houston real estate investors at meetups!