Advice for an upcoming College Graduate looking to house-hack

[Connor McGinnis]

Hi All,

I am a brand new member and I am looking forward to connecting with people on here.  I graduate college in about 9 months and I am applying to jobs around the midwest area but also in areas I would like to eventually end up like Texas and Florida.  As I do not know where I am going to be living in a year from now it is tough to prepare to invest in a market I may not know much about at all.  My biggest goal is to start building my real estate portfolio as soon as I graduate and I plan on doing so by house hacking in the area I end up getting a job in.  It seems like inventory is low nationwide, and good deals for duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes are hard to find.  I do come from an entrepreneurial family and I believe they would help me finance a bigger deal if needed, but I would like to start with something reasonable as I do not have any experience and I am not very handy as of now.  Does anyone have any advice on how to go about my current situation?  Specifically, how should I go about finding a house-hacking suitable deal once I figure out where I am going to live.  Anything that you can share would be a big help.

[Damon Cameron Jr]

I agree with Bruce Lynn. I am actually only 19 and some things I have been preparing are as follows:

1. Build credit to a minimum of 620 ( at least 2 lines or credit) (2 year credit history)

2. Get a job in the same field of degree ( Banks count 2 years in college as work experience at same pay of job offer letter)

3. Low debt to income ratio ( Get out of bad debt)

4. Down payment ( Find a job and save at least 50% of income for the down payment/ closing costs)

Based on your info above I would take the 9-12 months to learn and study the topic of Real Estate Investing. You will not know everything but it is good to get some solid education on Real Estate terms, Analyzing deals and building an Investor Mindset. Read some books on Business, Real Estate and Personal Development and watch Biggerpockets Podcasts.