All Forum Posts by: Nathan A.

In your shoes, I wouldn't recommend paying for a mentor. I think you're overestimating how much mentoring you actually need if you're going to be buying a small multi-family with an FHA loan and house-hacking it. Most of the guidance you need to buy a property that works will come from a good agent, combined with your own preferences about where you think is a nice neighborhood and where you want to live.

If you really want some hands-on step by step guidance you might consider the bootcamp BP offers, at a much more reasonable cost than $15K.

Quote from @Frank Jennings:

She was supposed to pay the security deposit over the first few months but didn't.

I don't think it was wise to let a tenant move in without a security deposit.

This map of New Jersey household income could be one starting point.

If you like where you currently live and really don't have any interest in living somewhere else, you'd need to buy investment property rather than house-hack. You're right that would require a larger down payment. Since housing prices are so high in your area, you could consider long-distance investing in a different market to get in with less cash. But I think a lot of people would tell you that house hacking is in fact a lot lower risk than long-distance investing. I would encourage you to reconsider house hacking a small multifamily.

If you aren't moving to the area until July, I wouldn't start looking for roommates until after you've moved and bought your property. Potential roommates would want to know about the property, where it's located and what amenities it has, which you wouldn't know yet. Also, I don't think that many people looking for rooms plan that far in advance. I would concentrate on getting yourself ready to look for and land your property!

Are property taxes and insurance included in that mortgage number?

I'm having trouble understanding how you're calculating the annual expenses and the annual cash flow. For example, maintenance at 5%, vacancy at 7% and property management at 10% don't add up to $6500. Cash flow comes out to nowhere near $11K when you add in all the expenses.

This guide by Brandon Turner might help give you the general idea. You can also give the BP Rehab Estimator a try.

Relentlessly focus on looking for ways to increase your income or decrease your expenses so you can save up for the reserves faster.

It sounds like you have a plan and you have enough cash for your area. When you say you have been searching for 3 years, what has held you back? If you haven't already gotten a lender preapproval and you haven't found an agent, I would do those things, and you'd be surprised how quickly things could start moving from there.

If you want to buy two separate properties, buy your primary residence first with a FHA loan or low down payment conventional loan. House-hack it if at all possible (either by purchasing a multi-family or by renting out rooms). As you mentioned, you would then have cash left over for a down payment on an investment property.

Keep some of your $60K for reserves.

I would recommend starting with this beginner's guide, the Real Estate Rookie Podcast or with one of the books targeted at beginners. Also, keep following the forums and soaking it in.