All Forum Posts by: Franklin Tarter

I was in the exact same shoes as you about 8 months ago. I'm 24 and bought my duplex in December and am getting married in 5 days! So far it's been an awesome experience getting a duplex, living in one half, and renting out the other. As others have said, getting pre-approved is the first step. Then find a realtor.

The realtor I used for my purchase basically just linked me in on his MLS. I gave him parameters of what areas, budget, and type of home (duplexes). Every day I got emails from him with a couple new houses (or newly priced houses) to browse online. I would suggest doing this so you can get familiar looking at lots of houses and prices online and get a feel for your area. I would also suggest getting a book on landlording to get you ready for that next step.

The house I got was a foreclosure about 8 years old and pretty under market value. The bank had owned it for a while and they'd just dropped the price by $60,000 so it popped up on my radar. The house really only needed cosmetic things: carpet, paint, caulk.. ect. It also needed appliances and a few minor fixes, like broken toilet lids and leaky P traps. I'd never done any kind of handy housework before so it worked out perfectly that this place just needed minor stuff that I could easily learn to do to get a knack for that stuff.

If you can find something like this I would highly recommend it. My two cents are: look at as many properties as you can so you will recognize what is undervalued and overvalued and choose something that needs minor or moderate work (unless of course you're really handy already). 

When I was looking people told me that 'you can't go wrong starting out with a duplex'. Well I wouldn't go that far. If you can shoot for getting something that you can pay the mortgage (principle and interest, not including tax/insurance) using the rental income, I think that's a really great benchmark. I am able to pay the mortgage with the rent and it's a wonderful blessing to be effectively mortgage free at 24 :)

I have had a very similar experience to what you are describing. When people say I'm a slum lord because I bought a duplex at a young age I usually just chuckle and move on. 

The interesting thing was that while I was in the process of getting the property there were a lot of opinions on rental property from people who had never attempted, and some opinions from people who had attempted it (but from what I can gather about them were pretty sloppy in their attempt). Some said more or less that my rental property would get trashed because nobody will ever take care of something they don't own, and I'd lose my investment and time.

Unfortunately I think a lot people want to validate their experiences by forecasting their results onto you. I also experienced this same kind of negative talk during my engagement. If I only talked to people who had gotten divorced or were unhappily married I would have been way too scared to do it. People were trying to predict my own future. Luckily there are positive people who have succeeded and will bring encouragement. Those are the people to listen to and emulate, the people whose footsteps I want to follow.

Maybe some people who call you a slumlord are being derogatory because they want to validate the fact that they aren't preparing for their financial future. Or maybe they're just joking around, but either way it doesn't really matter because you are taking action with your life.

Welcome, @Matthew Koczwara. I'm on a similar path myself. I bought my first property in December, a duplex that I owner occupy. I have had a great experience in starting this way since the rent check nearly covers the mortgage so I am living nearly mortgage free at a young age. I think it's an excellent way to go, at least in my experience so far.

Good luck!

Thanks for the tip on subscribing to the keywords. That's a really helpful function that I've never used in a forum before.

Thanks for the advice, George. I've been listening to the podcasts for the last few months on my commute. Will hopefully get around to reading the Ultimate Beginner's Guide soon!

One year ago I was living with my parents riding my bike to work everyday. I had been saving up to buy a duplex for several years so that I could owner-occupy right when I moved out of mom and dad's (guess I got used to paying low rent and wanted that to continue forever). In December I bought and fixed up a foreclosure, moved in and rented it out. Even though it has been stressful at times (being told by my renter that the hallway carpet was soaking wet behind the bathroom wall) it has been a great growing experience. Now I'm addicted to getting that rent check every month!

I'm getting married in two weeks and my fiance and I have the dream of living life outside of the financial rat race. I am eagerly looking forward to my next rental property, after I pay all the wedding/honeymoon bills of course :)

My future real estate goals are to own enough rental property to replace my wife and I's income, so we can focus on starting a big family. I also have interest in starting a real estate business either fix n flip or wholesale somewhere down the road, though that idea is somewhat abstract for me right now. I love the job I'm currently working and it pays well enough to fund decent capital for investing, so I'm not at that point where I'm itching to quit my career. I'm thinking I will want to quit my job when I feel that I'm not being challenged there anymore, then I'll be ready to try my own business. Hopefully sometime within the next 2-3 years. So short term I'm looking to mainly acquire buy and holds for cashflow.

Anyway, thanks everyone for contributing to such an awesome and helpful community. I definitely feel like I've found a gem of a website at BP.

Congratulations on the first win, Spencer! I'm on the west coast as well (Portland, OR) and it's great to hear someone else making it happen over here. Real estate investments have a high point of entry here (must be the amazing Portland rain weather) but are still very rewarding, as I have found with my first deal.

Welcome Steve,

I'm on the same path as well. Best of luck to you in your endeavors .

An interesting discussion to be sure. As others have pointed out, it seems they can all be good options and the 'best' option is really a matter of preference or what risk or headache tolerance the investor has.

I am only on my first property in my real estate investing career. It's a duplex in a B class neighborhood located in a suburb outside of Portland, Oregon. So far this is ideal for me since I am owner-occupying it, the low headache tenant was a huge factor for me. The cashflow is mediocre.

For my next property I'm likely going to look in C neighborhoods since I don't want take as long to save up for my next investment. I will most likely look for something that cashflows more, so that I can hire a property management company and still be happy with the cashflow after the fact.

So in my situation I vote for C neighborhoods, but if a great opportunity pops up elsewhere I'm open to it!