All Forum Posts by: Yusef Wakeel

@Bruce Lynn thank you! That’s a good idea. I will have to be resourceful and look at different programs to see what will work.

Quote from @Bruce Lynn:

1.  Don't quit your W2 job until your buy or have a replacement job.

2.  Don't borrow or cash out from the retirement account.  Just let those build.

3.  Could you get a second side hustle while you sell insurance.

4. You renters probably won't pay your mortgage, but they're a big help. You probably still need income to pay your share and when you don't have tenants. What is your PITI on $270,000....let's say you buy 3 bedroom, rent 2, stay in 1. What do/will tenants pay in rent? $900/month? including utilities. Start asking now people you know or run into as to what they would be willing to pay. That's the market and your market research.

5.  Duplex likely won't work for a good hack right now, but if you can get a 4 bedroom house or maybe even 5 bedroom that would work much better.

6.  Do it now or as soon as possible.  Time is on your side at your age.  

Thank you Bruce! That’s a lot of valuable insight and information.

If I don’t pull from the retirement accounts I may not be ready to buy. Maybe I can look into grants or other down payment assistance programs. I could also borrow some funds from my parents but not sure if I want to do that and put strain on them. 

I do want to get into a house now but with high rates and my minimal savings it’s still difficult.

I know you're right Rob, just long term I want to be self employed.

Building a life insurance agency can produce a lot of income in the long run, just takes some time starting out. I sent you a dm 

Thank you James I appreciate the knowledge and advice!

Yeah the lender told me as well it's better to buy now because if I move to self employment then the clock resets. Basically I would have to wait another 2 years to be qualified for a property.

I forgot to mention something in the original post. My full time job requires me to go to the office in Dallas, TX. However, the insurance sales is fully remote. So if I did switch and wait two years, now I have the whole US to look at for properties instead of just Dallas. Also, if I build an insurance agency that would generate passive income for me as I get a % of my teams sales. 

Is it easier to do a single family home or a duplex as first time home buyer with house hacking strategy?

I found two duplexes in Dallas that are under 400k and both are 6 bedrooms. I was thinking of using the Fannie Mae 5% conventional 30 year loan strategy. Though, I feel that the Duplex would be way more risky as my payment would be about 3200 a month instead of 2000 a month. 

As far as lenders and agents, if the lender refers an agent to me do I have to use that agent or can I use a completely different agent then the one the lender tells me about?

I'm 24 years old, live in Dallas,TX and I make 70k salary a year as a W2 employee. No debt and credit score is around 750. Currently have 20k in a HYSA and another 20k split between Rollover IRA (7k), Roth IRA (10k) , Traditional/Roth 401k (5k). I also have 5k in a HSA.

I currently live with my parents so I don't pay a lot in rent right now. However, I can't live at home forever so now I'm thinking about buying a SFH and renting the rooms out. Or, buying a Duplex and renting one side out then renting the other rooms out in the side I would live in.

I have spoken with two lenders and both have given me pre-approval letters for up to 270k purchase price, with 15k down payment, conventional fixed rate loan, 30 year term. They estimate the interest rate would be at about 6.6 to 6.8%. 

Here's my concerns:

Based on down payment and closing costs I would have to pull from retirement accounts to make this happen. I know I can pull from the Roth IRA without the penalty for up to 10k for first time home purchase, but not sure if I really want to do that. 
Also, I don't like my W2 job at all. It's not a hard job but I just really dislike it. I'm worried if I buy a property this will make it hard to leave the job, even if I find good tenants to rent the rooms out to. I've been working on a side hustle which is life insurance sales, and I've started to make decent income. Though, it's not as much as my full time job yet since I just started in April 2024. My income from the life insurance sales has gone from $0 in April to $1900 so far in July and on track for $4000 by end of July. 

My questions:

1. Is it a bad idea to continue thinking about a home purchase if I want to quit my job in the next 3-6 months?

2. If I don't buy a house now and instead use my savings to be able to quit my job and become self employed as 1099 commission sales, how long would this delay a home purchase?

3. What would happen if I bought a house and moved in, rented the rooms out, then quit my job a few weeks later and used my self employment income to cover remaining mortgage payments and my bills? Would this be considered mortgage fraud since I used my job and W2 income to qualify for the loan?

I feel stuck because I want to get into real estate but I really dislike my job. I'm leaning towards getting the house then quitting the job a few months after I'm settled and having tenants pay most/all of the mortgage. However, I know this will be very difficult to pull off and is a high risk, especially since I'm already using a lot of time for my full time job and building up my insurance agency on the side after work. I know the process of touring houses, getting home inspection, researching market rents, looking for tenants, screening tenants, etc takes up a lot of time. So I do want to be realistic and not stretch myself too thin here. 

Thank you for reading this.