1st house - Atlanta, GA

[Eric Feng]

Hello everyone. I am new to the forum, and to real estate investing. I hope to learn enough to someday to be able to pay it forward.

I am planning to purchase my first house in the next six months, somewhere close to Midtown and East Atlanta. I've saved enough to for a 25% down payment for a $130,000 property, with some cash reserves. I planned to buy a duplex, but there don't seem to be many good properties available, so I might eventually buy a 3 bedroom/2 bath, single family home. 

My investment strategy is tostart with buy and hold, buy 1 or 2 more in the next few years, gain more experience and capital. After that I'd try flipping, and/or wholesale properties. My plan is to live in my first house and rent out the two rooms, pay off the house aggressively to earn enough equity then purchase a second, then third property.

I'm just curious about what the more experienced home buyer/investors think. Anything from tips to suggestions to buying the first property, things to be careful about, whether the plan sounds feasible, etc. any advise would help.

Thank you all in advance.

Eric

[Damir Kamber]

@Kevin Izquierdo You can have up to 4 properties in your name where you are putting 3-5% down (living in it for 1 year). After that, you need to start thinking creative financing because the banks will not give you any more loans due to your debt/income ratio. Every property becomes debt even if you have renters. Once you start putting 20% down, do it through LLC. House hacking is an amazing concept for younger investors. You can easily have 10 doors in 5 years without putting too much cash down at one time.

@Eric Feng Make sure you leverage your liquidity. Do not put all your eggs in one basket, unless you have 20% worth of cash for multiple properties and you are still not starving. @Kyle Penland is absolutely correct with his approach. Put in 3-5% down into a property that has equity at purchase (this is the key). Ideally it's a duplex or a house with multiple rooms where you can have some cash flow. Note: YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LIVE OFF YOUR CASH FLOW FROM ONE OR FIVE OR TEN PROPERTIES. Cash flow is just that, cash flow. This is not your net profit. 

Cheers,

Damir