Advice for a newbie in Houston

[Cheyenne Gamangasso]

I recently graduated from Sam Houston State and started my career. I am wanting to start real estate by house hacking in/around the Houston area. I'm waiting to buy until I'm close to being out of my current lease in February. I feel this is my best way since a lot of people consider house hacking to be REI on training wheels. What's some advise you'd give someone my age who is wants to get into real estate investing? Maybe something that you wish someone would have told you or something you feel is important in the Houston market.

Also, I'd love to connect with anyone from the Houston area! I need some REI friends, all of mine just don't have the same kind of mindset.

[Megan Hodges]

@Joe Scaparra @Cheyenne Gamangasso

I agree with Joe but wanted to add that there is a rehab loan called a 203k which allows you to use it for buying and renovating a property. You can purchase a foreclosed property, ideally a duplex. If you do it right that's automatic equity because foreclosed properties are being sold for what's left of the loan- not market value. Run you're numbers right on how much of the 203k loan you are willing to bid with and use the rest of the loan to renovate the property. Because it's an owner occupant loan you would be required to live in it for the year so rent out the other unit and any extra bedrooms in your unit. That will bring your cost of living down to nearly nothing which allows you to build more capital for your next purchase. Once you've seasoned the loan for 6 months you can cash out refi and considering you probably bought the property way under market value (if you buy a foreclosed property) and then used the rest of the loan to renovate it (adding value) the equity on that cash out should be way over 2-5% Cash on cash ROI which is an extremely successful first investment and will undoubtedly lead the way to snowballing your investment portfolio!!