Should I keep my pickup truck or sell to buy our first duplex?

[Daniel Fitzroy]

Hi Bp hope everyone’s doing well today it’s been a while since I’ve been on here!

I own a 2011 Toyota Tundra. It’s a beautiful truck that’s lifted 6”. I made a previous post about paying it off a while back. It’s my dream truck I get compliments all the time from folks saying wow I can’t believe it has 182,000 miles on it it looks good! I love this truck and do plan on using it to help rehab property’s and even plan to have a truck to plow snow and maintain my units once build up my portfolio. but I read j Scott’s book on set for life and he calls me an idiot haha for driving said vehicle. For which he is right it’s pricey on gas and maintenance compared to a beater car. And since I don’t actually own my first property yet I’m doing anything i can to get there!

My girlfriend and I have an 8 year old boy and also we’re expecting a boy in a couple months!! I’m so excited. It’s more important now than ever for me to start working towards building up rentals to free me from my miserable 9-5 job and be able to live a better life and be home more with family someday. I plan to work hard and from 30 to 40 years old go all in in my real estate.

I am working on saving up money for us to use a low down owner occupied loan on our first 2-4 unit rental property. So far I have no debt at all and I have $500 saved. She has some money saved too which is good and I really don’t know if I should sell the truck which is valued at $15-20k. If I sell it, it will be the equivalent of me saving for like 2 years! I only earn about 30k a year as an auto body technician. I don’t want to sell the truck but I have mentally prepared myself to do whatever means necessary to build wealth and escape the rat race ASAP! I would love to be my own boss managing rehabs and maintaining properties!

So should I sell the truck and buy a cheap beater car like a Honda CR-V or should I keep the truck knowing that in a few years I’ll want to buy another one? I don’t need much to be happy and having a nice truck really is all I wanted. I remember when I had breakdowns everyday trying to get to work 5 years ago and I decided then to sell my old keep i was driving and sell my nice race bike, a street bike to buy the truck because I envisioned at the time ide have a family and want a truck to haul things with for my family. It’s been the most reliable vehicle and still is. I could make and last 8 years as it’s not rusted and it’s good daily driver sitting in it now as a matter of fact!

Lastly Are there creative ways I could buy our first rental without selling my truck such as owner financing or something along those lines? All of the banks are telling us even with an fha low down type loan here in ny we will still need to bring 15-20 k to cover all fees costs and taxes and everything.

Let me know what you think I should do and are any of you in a similar predicament!? Thanks!