Buy Primary Residence vs Rent & Invest

[Michael M.]

Hi All, 

So for background context, wife and I live in Orange County, CA. We rent an apartment for $3,450 and have enough saved for a down payment on a house. Our lease ends in December so I'm trying to start brainstorming and think ahead to different options.

My question to everyone is would you use the money as a down payment for a SFH that we'd live in and secure a primary residence? Or would you continue to rent and use the money to buy other properties/investments?

Thanks,

[Carlos Valencia]

Hi Michael, 

I would also recommend buying an investment property and live in it to house hack it like many mentioned above as long as your ok sharing your living space with your tenants. It will help offset your mortgage and lower your living expenses and allow you to continue saving money for your next property. Thats if you want to continue growing your real estate portfolio. Stay away from condos if you can. I tell you from experience as I currently own one and my HOA is getting ridiculous. When I bought my place in Santa Ana Ca in 2017 the HOA was $320 and now its $450. Its a gated community but still not worth $450 HOA services. At this rate I can't even imagine what it will be in the next 5 years lol. By the way we host real estate mixers here in orange county feel free to message me so I can share with you more information regarding those real estate mixers.

@Albert Bui @Matthew Kwan