All Forum Posts by: Caleb Rogers

Listened to this on the way to work this morning. Fantastic episode! Very motivating.

@Shawn Ward Yeah, I'm really leaning towards renting now and investing. I could get into a condo with 3.5% down, but then pay $1-1.5k more per month than what my rent is now. So I'm thinking that money will be better served saving up cash for purchases, and that 3.5% to 5% down payment on a condo would be 20-25% down on 1 or 2 rental properties in the market I'm looking at right now.

For those of you that rent in high cost of living areas and invest elsewhere, at would point did you (or will you) buy a place to live in? Do you plan on renting forever? I'm thinking I would buy a place when I have enough cash flow to pay the mortgage each month, but then I think about how that cash flow could be turned into even more rentals... 

@Joseph M. Since there aren't really any small multifamily properties I could house hack around here, I thought about using a live-in flip instead. The only problem with that is it's just all nice inventory around here. Ah, the curse of living in a really nice area.

My wife and I aren't the type that we have to own a home. As long as we're living in a good place, we're ok with renting for a while. If we do continue to rent for the next few years, we would be missing out on equity building via paying down principal and appreciation. I know appreciation is never guaranteed, but my area usually does pretty well in that regard. Still, everything could come crashing down or at least correct to stale.

So I'm crunching some numbers with various scenarios to see how much equity wealth I could build up in 1, 2, and 5 years, all using conservative appreciation rates. The logic here would be to use a heloc against that property to fund more investment purchases (excluding creative financing and such).

The other side of the coin is how much cash flow can I generate in the same amount of time. That depends on how many high-performing properties I can acquire.

I guess it boils down to do I want my primary residence to fund one or more of my investment properties, or do I want my investment properties to fund my home? Hmmm...time to crunch some more numbers.

Keep the input coming!

Correct, there are no duplexes or small multifamily properties in this area...that I've found. It's all houses, condos, and large apartment complexes. And horse ranches. So for the sake of this discussion, let's assume they don't exist.

We've essentially settled in this area, and have no intention of moving. Buying a home would be ideal, but should I put it off for a few to several years while acquiring multiple rental properties in a cash flowing market? I see advantages to both strategies, but I'd really like to know what some other people have done after being faced with a similar decision in the past.

Should I save up a down payment for a primary residence, or use that money to invest in one or more rental properties? I know there are plenty of people on both sides, but I'm curious if someone here has done one and wished they had done the other?

I have one rental property, and I'm currently renting an apartment. My wife and I would like to buy a house, but we would also like to invest in a lot of real estate. For one 20% down payment in my area, I could probably acquire two or three good rental properties (with 20% down) in the same market as my current rental. But as we know, I can get into a primary residence for anywhere from 3.5% up.

If I buy a primary residence with a big enough down payment I can use a heloc to invest, but it take a while to get to that dollar amount. If I aim for rental properties, I'll get cash flow, but I'll keep using my cash reserves to buy houses and not be able to have a down payment for a primary residence. At least not for several years.

Renting isn't too bad, but houses in my area have always appreciated well, so that's a consideration. I know at some point, I'll have enough cash flow that I'll be able to buy a place to live, but should I wait? Who has done one and wished they did the other, and why?

Oh, and there are no duplexes in the area, so house hacking is likely out of the question. Also, I don't have the money saved now. I'm trying to figure out my strategy here, because I need a clearly defined objective to create the success I'm after.

Thanks, all! I've got a lot to figure out, but I love learning and I love systems, so this is exciting.

Hello, Bigger Pockets. My name is Caleb, and I'm new to the forum and new to real estate. I kind of stumbled into this whole rental investing thing by necessity, but I think I can see a bright future. Years ago, my wife and I talked about doing real estate in the future, like some distant dream in the clouds. It was always something we thought we would do in the future. Always in the future, and never right now. 

When I got a good job offer about a year ago, we had to pick up and move from Central Arkansas to Southern California. We owned a nice house there, but we just wanted to sell it and start fresh in California. Unfortunately for my real estate agent, the market was depressed and values were down. Even after lowering the price twice, it wouldn't sell. We paid that empty house for about 8 months before we decided to rent it out. We got a property manager and she had a renter in a couple of weeks. I just got our first rent check in the mail today, and it feels good. I should have just rented it out from the beginning, but oh well. I guess I'll have to build an empire now.

Currently learning so I can figure out what and where my next move is going to be. And I'm almost halfway through the podcast, and I've listened to all of the Money podcast (which is awesome -- Mindy and Scott are fantastic). Looking forward to learning from all of you people who know way more than I do about this stuff. 

YouTube.