Buy Apartment in Jersey City

[Cindy Ni]

Hi, I am completely new to real estate and honestly very lost as to where to start. I am looking to buy an apartment in Jersey City as my primary residence (thinking of living in it and renting out another room via Airbnb or to a long-term renter). I am unsure of where to start - I know the first steps would be to understand the financing options (how much of a down payment I would need to put down, getting pre-approval, finding real estate attorney) as well as understand the NJ laws around this. I have been googling but unable to find any good resources. Would anyone be able to point me to a few resources to get started? Thank you!

[Jonathan Maio]

Hey Cindy!

I would do a few things:

1. Figure out how much money you can afford to pay and your financing. You might want to read (or listen) to some of the BP books or podcast to get some ideas about different financing options and strategies. Since you're living in the home you can do a regular FHA loan or a 203k if you're thinking about doing renovations as well

2. Get a real estate agent to start sending you some options. You want to be super familiar with the market and average prices so when you see a good deal you know its actually a good deal and can make a move quickly on it. You can search on BP for agents in your area.

3. Start analyzing properties! BP calc is actually pretty good or you can make your own - don't forget about things like repairs, taxes, etc in your numbers. Rentomer.com is great for looking at rent prices if you need.

4. Once you have some options and an idea of your strategy (airbnb, a duplex/triplex, etc) then do some research on those in JC and speak with a lawyer, I think you'll find that part is probably easier than you expect :)

5. Keep making offers, its likely going to take multiple offers and looking at a lot of properties before you are successful with one!

Good luck and feel free to message me if you ever have any questions! I'm pretty familiar with JC :)