Starting real estate investing in Pocatello

[Dallin Watson]

Hi I'm Dallin Watson I am 21 years old and I'm already tired of working from 8 to 5 Monday through Friday so I'm getting into real estate investing. Born and raised here in Poky and planning staying for a long time. I have decided to start investing in multi family houses. I will be able to house hack this way and be able to get more doors quicker. I am currently in the process of getting pre-approved for a loan. Anything I can do to help get it approved? I know underwriters like seeing specific things. What other ways could I possibly get funding for a potential deal in the area? I have a realtor but what realtor do you prefer to work with? What type of properties are you investing in this area? What things have you done to bring you success? What should I know before I buy my first property? How are you and your properties doing right now in this area?

[Dallin Watson]

Originally posted by @Don Spafford:

@Dallin Watson Congrats on deciding to house hack. Depending on your lender, when you find a specific property they will want to see the rents first which they can use to approve you for a higher amount. I don't know your current income level but I would assume you would not be approved for more than $200k if you were to buy a house just to live in yourself. But if you buy a 4 plex they should be able to include I think 75% of the expected rent to increase your income which would allow for a higher loan amount. But you need to also be sure to work with a lender that understands rentals and will include the income for your benefit. I buy multi family only and have not had any problems with tenants. I also do a thorough job to screen potential renters to help avoid issues. If you haven't yet, I would suggest reading the "Book on Managing Rental Properties" you can buy here on BP. It will be very helpful.

For my pre-approval I have been working with ICCU. I have been working with one of the regular mortgage loan officer in the branches but I know they have real estate loan specialists so I am also working on getting in touch with one to see what things I could do to make my pre-approval to be accepted. I started the pre-approval process before I knew exactly what I wanted to invest in so I have been pre-approved for a 25% down on $175,000 investment property. Since then I have decided to house hack and live in a duplex and rent out the other apartment. I have been reworking the loan with them and currently trying to get pre-approval for a $200,000 primary residence loan that I will spend on a duplex. When I meet with the real estate loan expert I will ask about being able to use a quadplex’s rent to help me get a higher approval on the loan amount. I have only been looking at duplexes mostly because there are still a few that come onto the market that are in my basic pre-approval range. I will have to tell my agent to start looking for triplexes and quadplexes as well. I thought I had read just about all Brandon Turner’s books but I somehow missed his one about managing rental properties. I have looked it up and will be buying it shortly. This stuff gets a lot more exciting the deeper you get yourself into it!