All Forum Posts by: Ryan Bourque

@Jared Smith thank you for sharing! This is great news for an aspiring first time home buyer / investor such as myself.

All of my outstanding/existing debt are federal student loans, (24k principle, with an average 6% interest rate). I have zero credit card debt or any outstanding debt outside of my student loans! I also have an 826 credit score so I know I could get a decent interest rate on a loan. I am currently renting and have never been a home owner previously. I honestly never felt like I could afford a PR until I got out of my debt situation and did not want to take on anymore debt until then; however, your recommendation on owning instead of renting a PR is intriguing to me. My initial plan (outside of just sticking with renting for the time being as I dig myself out of debt), given my situation, was to 'house hack', as I could build equity and have the mortgage payed down by the tenants (and in turn ramp up my student loan payments and cash flow for other REIs). OR, continue to rent and buy a SFH to rent out as an investment. What are your thoughts?

Thank you!

Hello all. New here from Phoenix, AZ. I am new to the game and have been reading / listening / absorbing as much information I can about beginning a journey in real estate investing. Before truly moving onto that journey, over the course of the past couple years, I have been on a very strict debt free journey. Just over a couple years ago, I was in a massive amount of debt, mainly student loans (almost 100k) and as of today, I have about 24k left to go and plan to be 100% debt free by August 2020. As I get closer and close to this goal, my mind is thinking about 'what's next?' which is what got me more and more interested in REI. My goal is to start out with a SFH REI, as this seems to fit my situation both logistically and financially when I am ready. Which leads me to my question with this post. Since I am still currently on a path to become debt free, along with trying to save as much money as possible (I have about 10k in savings), should I just stick with this 'grind' for the time being and continue to educate myself in REI? I will admit that I am now extremely gun-shy of taking out loans, since I put myself in a very bad situation with student loans; however, I do not plan on letting that fear takeover with REI. The thought of taking out more loans while trying to get out of one now is a bit overwhelming, but I also do not want to 'spin my wheels' and not take action.

So, what are your thoughts on diving into REI with existing debt?

Thank you!