All Forum Posts by: Tim G.

Hello BP,

I wanted to see if there are any investor friendly real estate agents in RI that would be willing to work with me. I currently own a SFH but am looking to transition into an MFH to "house hack" and kick off my investing career. It would have been great to start out this way from the beginning but circumstances did not allow it when we were first shopping for a place to live. I will mainly be focusing on properties south of Providence (which seem to be scarce).

Thank You

BS Computer Network Engineering

I would like to join this group as well since I am on the hunt for my first MFH. I have a SFH now but will either be buying an MFH outright or doing a house hack in the RI coastal area.

Ben,

We do have a mortgage on the property currently. I do work full time but have not really entered the real estate investment game yet. I am thinking our best way to get in would be to house hack a duplex after selling renting our SF home. This would benefit us in multiple ways and hopefully be the springboard to acquiring more rentals going forward. As far as the stock market I just have my company 401k currently and am contributing 6% with 100% company match on it. The difficulty I am having is deciding where to put all of the extra money. Of course I want the best return possible with the lowest risk so there is a proper balance I am comphortable with. Would it be better to ignore FHA for the duplex and go 20% in conventional?

Hello everyone,

I wanted to explain my situation here on the forum to see what advice I could get on options of where to park my extra cash. I currently own a SF home that I love but realize its a liability to my finances. I plan on selling/renting it out within the next few years to get into a duplex and utilize the "house hacking" strategy. I plan to do this with an FHA loan since my first was conventional so as to hold on to more cash for future investments. Ideally this will pay for most or all of the mortgage on that property so I can eliminate most of my housing expense compared to what I am paying now.

That is my plan for the real estate side of my investing. My other plan is to invest some of the rest. I have been thoroughly studying brokerages, robo-advisors etc lately to determine my best option to grow the cash I have on hand. I have a one year emergency fund put away already in a liquid online savings account earning 1% and compounding. I have about 20K beyond that for investing and will be banking roughly 25K/year going forward just in extra savings cash (more if I can lower/eliminate my current housing expense by house hacking). I am leaning towards a robo advisor at this point (wealthfront) because of the tax advantages and the fact that I would have over 100K in the account within the next few years (taking advantage of direct indexing for additional tax savings). I also am utilizing a 401K at my work currently with a full 6% match (contributing 6% to take full advantage of the match) so that will continue to grow over the years as well (10K currently and performing well in a target date 2050 vanguard fund). 

My other goal is to retire young. I am 30 right now and would like to be close to retiring and doing real estate full time by 40. My family's living expenses currently with housing are about 25K/year (we live frugally) which Is why I really want to pursue a buy and hold duplex that we can live in at least for a while to reduce that amount. I have researched into these topics thoroughly lately and really need some insight into my plans and if my line of thinking makes sense at this point in my life. Should I go with a brokerage vs an online advisor for my extra cash? Is my buy and hold strategy for house hacking sound or should I consider alternatives? 

Thank you

Tim

I have been on BP for over a year learning as much as I can and preparing for the road ahead in achieving my goals of early retirement. After researching different strategies, it seems my best option (open for discussion) is getting into multi family properties versus single families (my original goal strategy). Financially, I will be ready by this coming spring to "safely" buy my first investment (I own a SF home currently with only 3K into it). I have been entertaining investement choices for my money (CD's, stocks, etc) but from being on BP I know the most important thing for early retirement is passive income, which MF investing would ideally provide. Researching % return on investement with the choices I mentioned will never get me to my "rat race number" of passive income I need to retire young, at least not anytime soon. I have the following questions regarding my options:

1. Is my only option to put 20% down on a potential MF property if I do not want to use an FHA and live in the property for one year (Primary residence was conventional)?

2. Should I look into commercial properties even though I have no track record (besides my SF)?

3. I believe my best option is to get into a property with as many units as possible to achieve my goals faster, is this a feasible option for me or should I exclusively focus on MFR's (2,3 and 4 unit)?

Any insight into my ideas or questions will be much appreciated. 

Thank You

Tim

 Charlie,

     Thank you for the feedback. It seems the information I had gotten was not correct then,I will review the guidelines. 

Hello,

I bought my first SFH in 8/2014 and have been working on wiping out debt, fixing up the property and saving like crazy. The SFH was a conventional loan with 3% down (first time home buyers) and came with a GREAT rate. We were approved for 2X more than what we bought the property for so it has been easy living financially. I am moving on to buying our next property and am wondering what would be more beneficial. I know we can of course use 20% down on the property but I also believe we could go with an FHA loan as long as we live in the property for one year. In this scenario we would rent the first property out for hopefully some decent cash flow and house hack the second property or just get another SFH and rent it out after 1 year. At this point rent from both properties should be counting towards income for the third property which of course would need to be a conventional with 20% down (I believe). Does this sound like a good strategy? Am I missing any other possible financing options that don't require 20% down (for me to do personally)? Any advice and insight is welcome.

Courtney,

Welcome to BP! This site has been a great resource for me and has helped me through purchasing my first property and learning a wealth of knowledge about REI.

Tim

Leyanne,

Welcome to BP! This site has been a great resource for me and has helped me through purchasing my first property and learning a wealth of knowledge about REI. I am actually taking advantage of the "First Homes Tax Credit" myself currently. If you have any questions about the process please let me know as I have just recently went through it myself.

Tim