All Forum Posts by: Brandon Smith

I’m looking to buy a multi family property in Springfield Massachusetts. I’d like to live in one of the units and rent out the others. I want to get a good deal, but my highest priority is my personal safety. My question is: what steps can one take to find safe neighborhoods in a relatively unsafe city? *bonus points for those who can recommend to me specific safe neighborhoods in Springfield MA*

@Ivan Dushchenko I live in Southwick, MA, which is right on the border of Connecticut.  I also have a lot of family in West Hartford, so I'm very familiar with that part of the state.

I had heard of FHA loans before, but I've never heard of 203k FHA loans before you mentioned it. I just read a little bit, and those look very promising as well. Thanks for the tip Ivan!

Hello All,

I just recently graduated college, and will be starting my first full-time employment opportunity this upcoming July.  As a finance undergraduate student, I've always been captivated with investments, and real estate has been my favorite type of investment opportunity.  I don't foresee myself buying a home in the immediate future, seeing as I'm currently broke and just graduated, but ideally I see myself buying and renting out multifamily properties.  Brandon Turner, one of the main contributors to this website, always talks about how his first property was a duplex that he lived in, and I personally think that's a great way to introduce oneself to real estate.  I see myself hopefully taking that same path.

As a broad question, is there any advice anyone could provide for setting myself up for success?  I don't foresee myself having enough money to make a down payment on a property for at least another 6-12 months, so in the meantime, I feel that probably the best thing I can do is educate myself as much as possible.  I've attended a few of the live seminars on this website, and they've been exceptionally helpful.  I've also been reading a few business books, and have just recently started collecting real estate specific books to read over.  Ideally, I want to be as confident as possible when purchasing my first property, and would love to do whatever I can to get to that point.  Any and all advice would be much appreciated!

Best,

Brandon