Any Tips On Buying My First Property?

[Hannah McGinty]

Hi! My name is Hannah and this is my first time asking a question on this forum, but I was wondering if any of you have some tips or stories on buying a first rental property and ways to finance? I just turned eighteen years old and I am about to graduate high school next month, and my plan is to house hack my very first rental property (a multi-family home) so that I can hopefully get it at 3.5% down using a FHA loan and start getting some cashflow to reinvest. I'd like to acheive this goal by the time I'm twenty years old. I would like to take a gap year before college so I can really focus on investing and real estate. I have been reading and learning all that I can about rental property investing, and this is me taking my first step in building a portfolio! I'm super excited! I have a passion for investing and real estate! I have about $4,600 saved up in the stock market and $1,000 sitting in my savings account. I'm not sure if I should invest that $1000 in the stock market to save up for a downpaymet + closing costs or if I should start a business with it to make more money for a downpayment. I'm aware that there are also a lot more fees as well, so I'm not exactly sure what to do. Do any of you have any suggestions on where I should put this money or if I should start a business to fund my downpayment? If you've been through something similar, I would love to hear your story as well and connect! Also, if you have an questions for me, I'd love to answer them! Thanks so much for taking time to read this!