All Forum Posts by: Gustavo Rodriguez

@Blake Henderson

Remain optimistic brother. I’m in a similar situation and I know how you feel. I my wife and I had a total of 100k in debt, partly student debt and personal loans. We ended up moving back to my in laws because my wife had lost her job and it would of been difficult to pay for our debts and a $1700 dollar rent. It hurt a lot because we ha even living them before and I thought I was making the right decision to move but life brings many unexpected circumstances. Rather than letting my situation drag me into a never ending depressive pit, I managed to get 25k erased. I definitely could of worked harder and did slack off a bit when paying the debts off, but I’m on the road to hopefully being debt free by this time next year. I can be demoralizing when people see you on your 30s living with family but I am eternally grateful to them and hopefully I can pay it forward when they decide to retire and begin to embark on the journey of real estate. The only from down it up.

@Randall Alan Im late but thank you for the adivce. Ideally I would like to purchase a MFH, live in stand then move out, but I know there are some loan options that require you to live in the house for several years before moving. These tend to be the loan options with lower down payment rates. I am definitely going to wrk towards paying down my debt first. I just hope that I can still get something if I am able to get my debt at last down to half and then look towards purchasing a home. Thanks you the help.

Hello everyone, I busted wanted some advice on purchasing a home while having personal debt. My wife and I do not live in the most desirable part of Newark, NJ and have been wanting to leave in order to purchase a multi family or single family home. Ideally, we would I would like to get a multi in order to begin an investment portfolio in real estate, but my concern is the debt we currently have will prevent us from obtaining a mortgage. At this point, I am more concerned of giving my kids a nice home more than anything else. I am new to real estate and eventually want to expand my portfolio, but a home for my children is my priority. My wife and I have about 90k in debt, I am working on a savings for the house. I should have have about 18k by the end of the summer.

Most people will say to use the money to pay down debt, but I frankly am tired of my neighborhood. I am looking for any advice on either trying to put my debt into a mortgage if possible or any other alternatives I can take to purchase a home. First time home owners? Programs with for people with personal debt? My credit score is in the upper 700s. I’ve seen mortgage companies have programs where you are given money for closing costs, but am not sure if they are legit. Any help would be greatly appreciated thank you.

Thank you @Nathan Gesner & @Craig Jeppesen.

To me this also made the most sense since I am pretty sure banks will see us as a liability. You also cannot plan enough for rainy days. I will need to work harder and earning more and spending less.

Hello everyone,

For those that may have more experience than me, this might be an obvious question, but I have been wrestling with it for a while so here it goes. My wife an I have always talked about buying a home, but have always fallen short of saving for one. We are now in the process of saving for one again, but we have about $100,000 worth fo debt together that we have to pay between students loans and personal. We also rent an apt for $1,600 and I have two children. My question is the following: Would it be wiser to pay off our debt first before purchasing a home considering that a bank may not give us a loan due to our debt or should we attempt to use our savings to the buy a home? I would like to begin real estate on the right foot and be in it for the long haul and not just short term. Anyone with experience please chime in. Thank you

Thanks @John O'Leary and @Joe Evangelisti. Appreciate the support. I've set my hot words for Newark NJ, so hopefully I can join in some interesting discussions. I have actually tried to find information on local REIA meetings, but could not find in the north jersey area, unless I am looming wrong. I know people have mentioned meetup.com on other forums, so I may give that a try. Not hoe eager investors would be in working with someone that has no experience in RE.

Looking for REI group to meet up with in north jersey. I'm new to the community and RE and want to network with people to get a better understanding of RE. I reside I Newark, N.J. Thanks for the help.

Hello Shannon Guy, I am new to the community as well and have gained some valuable information from this community. I reside in Newark and am actually looking on purchasing my first home hopefully within the next year. You have picked some great cities to invest in. Best wishes

I reside in Newark and am also new to real estate. I speak with limited experience, but what I can say is that I have doing my research to purchase a multi family home and those that have made post such as @John Errico and others are correct. Most of the best bargains are in areas that are least desirable to live and the best areas usually have very little inventory when it comes to housing. Areas, such as the ironbound and the northward center are great, but some of the houses you may find have super high taxes that will eat away at your rental income, ironbound especially. Continue to keep your eyes peeled though because I have seen some nice houses for decent prices. Best of luck.

Hello everyone,

My name is Gustavo and am a new member from Newark, NJ. Been reading about real estate for a while, but have yet to make an actual purchase. I am in the process of saving to hopefully invest in buying my first house. I reside in Newark, NJ and am interested in making investment purchases in the city. My goal was to buy a multi family home first and then move onto a single family. Afterwards, I would try to continue investing in multi-family homes. I am also opened to investing in other areas such as plainfield, elizabeth, belleville, and other surrounding areas. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully with the advice I gain from everyone in this community, I can purchase my first property by next year.