All Forum Posts by: Jonah Cervantes

@John Hamm welcome to BP! I was in the Navy for 4 years and love to see other military personal/ vets investing. I've maxed out my VA loan now in Columbus OH and know the VA loan in and out if you have any questions on it. Columbus OH is a good spot to invest in too if you ever have any interest here.

Obviously VA you'd have to go owner occ but still a very good way to get started with a house hack.

@Jonah Cervantes

Zero down can work but you are going to be heavily leveraged so you have to buy right.

You should shoot for a price where you have 15-20% equity on day one.

If you're in a multi family, half of the units rent income should make the payment. If the payment is higher than that, you are going to struggle.

Buy local, you know the area and that's worth a lot. Buy direct and save the fees if you feel comfortable doing that.

Good luck.

I invested successful in real estate my entire military career, mostly from overseas.  Now retired, I have a decent amount of paid off properties.  Look around my blog, youtube channel and (recently) tik tok for a bunch of good guidance (search for richonmoney).  A lot of my content is tailored to military members doing real estate, which has its unique challenges and strategies.  I've been on biggerpockets podcast twice.  I'd recommend listening to the most recent one on Biggerpockets Money episode 156.  

Hey I just wanted to put this out there to get any advice or experienced opinions! I have built up a small portfolio on my own and am now getting under contract for an 88-unit deal for $8.65m.

I will be raising capital for the first time ($2m of it) and am piecing together the whole structure. It's going to be a standard LLC, not a fund, just for this one deal. Technically all partners will not be limited, but the operating agreement will spell out the specifics and make sure people cannot get voted out.

I would love to hear any advice from anyone who has raised capital! My debt is in place, management is in-place, off-market deal lined up.... it's all ready, now I am just raising the cash from my close inner-circle.

Rents are decent, fairly close to 1% already (I'll hit 1% after raising rents). Simple value add play, very confident I can bring the NOI from $427,000 to $550,000+ in a few years. Should be a nice double on the equity with cashflow along the way, buying it at a 4.9% cap.

Debt is going to be 3-year interest only at 3.5% with 2 separate 1-year options to extend. Then will either exit or place on longer debt with a cash out refi.

I've done this on a small scale many times (never a commercial loan). The deal doesn't scare me at all, this is super solid. But the specifics behind bringing in capital and operating with a larger amount of money just makes me want to be extra cautious since it's not only my money. I have funds out of my own pocket going hard to get the deal under contract.

Hey, @Jonah Cervantes! Congrats and welcome to the wild world of real estate investing - I wish I had found real estate investing when I was your age! :) 

Echoing @Brendan Miller - House Hacking is definitely one of the easiest ways to get your foot in the door. Buy a 2-4 unit property, live in one of the units, and rent the others. If multifamily is outside of your budget, you can always do rent by room strategy in a single-family home or look into a short-term rental strategy with something like Airbnb or VRBO. 

If you are not eligible for a VA loan, you can go the FHA 3.5% down route or Conventional 3-5% down. The goal is to put as little money down as possible and after a year, do it again and move into your next house hack!

Hi @Jonah Cervantes, congrats on the new job and taking the next steps to starting your real estate journey. I'd recommend taking advantage of the VA loans that you'll have access to. I believe you can get 0% down on properties (or very low down payments if 0% down is no longer available). I'd start with house hacking a small multifamily (2-4 units), live in one and rent out the other. I got started with buying a primary residence and then eventually renting it out after I upgraded, it's a good way to get started with someone that doesn't have much cash in the bank for a down payment.

Helping those who are starting out.