All Forum Posts by: Weston Flowers

@Mike Paquette,

Hey mike. Welcome to BP! This platform is such a powerful asset. As others have said, it’s great you’re looking for suggestion on this topic at your age! It looks like you’ve already gotten some great advice above. I’d like to piggyback off @Randall Alan. House hacking is arguably one of the easiest ways to get into REI with limited capital. You can qualify for low down payment loans like FHA and conventional loans under the contingency that you live in the property for a year. It's what I'm currently doing and is proving to be a smart move. My wife and I bought our first home Jan 2022 and rented out our finished basement to a friend of ours.We bought over asking because thats what the market was like a year ago lol. Others who were buying around that time in markets like Denver can attest. Very competitive. We locked in at a 2.9% interest rate on a conventional loan with low money down. This worked for us. Sure we had an expensive property on our hands but we have very cheap debt on our home. HOWEVER, if I could go back I'd house hack a bit differently. At that point I hadn't found BP yet and my intention in buying didn't wasn't an investment strategy. I wasn't even aware I was house hacking. If I could go back with the knowledge I have now, I would have bought a multi family home like a 2-4 plex. With the same loan and rented the other units. This method would set you up for more cash flow after you move into another house hack the subsequent year. Multi family homes will always cash flow more than single family homes. I think some actionable steps for where you are at in your journey is to

1. Try and secure some more capital to invest or find a partner willing to fund a deal.  There’s always unforeseen expenses that justify having reserves on hand. I had a to pay to repair a gas leak and buy a new water heater within our first 6 months. 

2. Spend as much time as you can listening to BP podcasts like the “real estate rookie”The latest episode of the BiggerPockets podcast is actually titled “How to start a real estate portfolio with just 10k” 

3. Research creative financing options for deals like “subject to” or “seller finance”. I don’t know what your income looks like or if you have a W2, but with your age, limited capital, and lack of credit history, lenders might have a hard time making the determination that you’re a safe and bankable candidate for a loan. These methods would be a good way to circumvent those issues considering your lender would essentially be the seller. It would help loads to have someone who has used one of these methods before in your network to help you through the process. 

I hope this helped. Good luck!

I love that people are asking about this topic! So glad I stumbled into this thread. This is a niche that should definitely be on LTR investors radar. Especially in bigger cities. I'm new to REI but have been working in the field of addictions treatment for some time. Most recently overseeing the operations of an organization that provides sober living to those seeking recovery from substance use disorder. We rented as many as 8 homes at a time! In my experience renting to a sober living is absolutely a smart move(speaking from the other side). If it's a solid sober living there are typically required chores that include things like regular deep cleans of the home, so your property will be taken good care of in that regard. Another cool thing about renting to sober livings is that your portfolio could grow with the sober living organization! Rule of thumb for sober living homes is once you reach capacity, open a new house! So they are always looking to expand. Obviously a huge opportunity for a reliable and consistent renter. It can be a challenge getting an investor to rent to your sober living so we're used to paying an additional 10-20% for the assumed risk. My suggestion.. ask about their program, see if they'd be willing to let you see their policies and procedures. Ask about their insurance policy. If they seem well put together programmatically, take the chance! Feel free to ask more questions on this topic in a reply or DM! Additionally, if your portfolio reaches Denver metro, let's connect!

Hello, all. Weston here, Denver CO. I have been spending much time as of late reading threads on this platform, as I'm trying to establish a clear path to get into real estate. However, trying to research and retain all the information I'm finding here, is a bit like trying to drink water from a fire house. That being said, I decided it makes the most sense to create a profile and make a post specific to my situation and see what guidance and suggestion I can receive. Im 26 years old, I live in Denver and I'm a bit burned out in my current career path. When my wife and I bought our home last year, I was attracted to real estate, and it's been in the back of my mind since. We've since, had our fist baby and I'm setting out to accomplish our goal of financial freedom so we can spend more together as family. I'm intelligent, capable, and professional but I have no capital. Where do I start? Should I go the STR route? Flip? LTR? Arbitrage? As you can tell I'm a bit lost. Any experience, and suggestion is welcome and appreciated. Thanks!