Freshly New Investor and wants guidance on where to start

[Spring Ho]

Hello, 
After reading books( rich dad poor dad, etc) , and listening to BP, I've decided I really want to get my life on a path of financial freedom, and free of my restrictive parents. 

My goal is to have my first property I buy, to be a multifamily. My ideal goal is to buy a quadplex or triplex. If I truly can't find a good deal then I'd be okay settling for a duplex and wait the year to do the exchange and slowly build up my portfolio (I want to buy and hold my properties). One of my discouraging factor is that I don't make much to start with, and hope the real estate investing will help change that.

My question I have right now to start is, where should I go? I've read post that we don't need to look far, just from our backyard, but in Portland oregon the prices seem out of my reach. I know the very first step I should do is talk to a lender to better gauge what I can afford, but do I need to talk to a lender that is local to where I buy? Since I'm not sure if I want to invest in Portland oregon with how the prices are. I don't want to go out of portland/beaverton/hillsboro since the things I want near my property is ease of transportation, as I don't have a car.

What states would be good to start a multifamily where I can make some cash flow or at least break even so I can save for a downpayment for my next property? 

I'm interested in doing short-term leasing in the units also for travel nurses/insurances, so a health focused area is nice too!

I'm a 25F so safety is a high priority for me as an individual, so states with high crime rate such as Ohio and Indiana is not appealing. But this is just based on research I've done on the internet, so any insight to help explain that I don't have to be as weary would be awesome if a location you are advising has concerns. 

I also would like the location to be a bit convenient for me to travel by transit 

States/areas I've looked into, but not sure if I should make the jump:

-Minnesota Minneapolis/St.Paul  ( heard rent is going down in these areas, and it's not landlord friendly either)

-Iowa Des moines

I have about 11k that I've saved up that I can put for a downpayment and 8k to cover closing cost; but if I can have the seller to pay that then it would help with any remodeling to help increase the properties value or I can use it to buy a cheap car that can get me to point A- B

TLDR:

Good states to start buying your first multifamily home?

-Low crime rate

-decent location that is accessible to reliable transit

-growing city (economy, jobs .etc)

Ideas which state to go to before I talk with a lender; or can I talk to any lender located anywhere; so I can make multiple credit checks all at once when I talk to them.

Thank you, for reading. I look forward to your responses! 

[Lawrence Potts]

Quote from @Spring Ho:

Hello, 
After reading books( rich dad poor dad, etc) , and listening to BP, I've decided I really want to get my life on a path of financial freedom, and free of my restrictive parents. 

My goal is to have my first property I buy, to be a multifamily. My ideal goal is to buy a quadplex or triplex. If I truly can't find a good deal then I'd be okay settling for a duplex and wait the year to do the exchange and slowly build up my portfolio (I want to buy and hold my properties). One of my discouraging factor is that I don't make much to start with, and hope the real estate investing will help change that.

My question I have right now to start is, where should I go? I've read post that we don't need to look far, just from our backyard, but in Portland oregon the prices seem out of my reach. I know the very first step I should do is talk to a lender to better gauge what I can afford, but do I need to talk to a lender that is local to where I buy? Since I'm not sure if I want to invest in Portland oregon with how the prices are. I don't want to go out of portland/beaverton/hillsboro since the things I want near my property is ease of transportation, as I don't have a car.

What states would be good to start a multifamily where I can make some cash flow or at least break even so I can save for a downpayment for my next property? 

I'm interested in doing short-term leasing in the units also for travel nurses/insurances, so a health focused area is nice too!

I'm a 25F so safety is a high priority for me as an individual, so states with high crime rate such as Ohio and Indiana is not appealing. But this is just based on research I've done on the internet, so any insight to help explain that I don't have to be as weary would be awesome if a location you are advising has concerns. 

I also would like the location to be a bit convenient for me to travel by transit 

States/areas I've looked into, but not sure if I should make the jump:

-Minnesota Minneapolis/St.Paul  ( heard rent is going down in these areas, and it's not landlord friendly either)

-Iowa Des moines

I have about 11k that I've saved up that I can put for a downpayment and 8k to cover closing cost; but if I can have the seller to pay that then it would help with any remodeling to help increase the properties value or I can use it to buy a cheap car that can get me to point A- B

TLDR:

Good states to start buying your first multifamily home?

-Low crime rate

-decent location that is accessible to reliable transit

-growing city (economy, jobs .etc)

Ideas which state to go to before I talk with a lender; or can I talk to any lender located anywhere; so I can make multiple credit checks all at once when I talk to them.

Thank you, for reading. I look forward to your responses! 

Sounds like you’ve really put a lot of thought into your first step. These are important things to go over before you make your first purchase. Great work 👏 some things to consider:

You may need to have a larger down payment going non-owner occupied (potentially up to 25%). Some lenders have more favorable DP’s (potentially 10%) but but may have stricter requirements. As usual, talk to a lender!

I think house hacking to start with is the best way to hedge your capital and investment and scale quickly. Minimal down payment, barrier of entry is lower, and if you make a mistake (which all of us do), it's more forgiving. You can also use that income to help your DTI to qualify for more. I know it'll be hard to find a triplex/quadplex in Portland but prices become a little more favorable the farther down you go Portland HWY (Newberg, Sherwood, etc.).

If you decide to go out of state, you’ll need to build a strong team: contractors, property managers, lenders, and real estate agents/deal finders. You can build that team through biggerpockets! Just takes a lot of time and discernment. I got started out of state and almost lost it all (my fault, didn’t take the time to learn what I needed and ask the right questions like what you’re doing now). But definitely doable for anyone if you do it smart.

If you need a lender, I recommend @Grant Schroeder . He's helped a lot of investors and owns a good size portfolio in the area. I know he has a 0% down first time homebuyer product that has no PMI and a 10% nonowner occupied investment product.

Hope that helps! Let us know what you decide to do.