All Forum Posts by: Zachary Hutchinson

So I’m saving up to buy my first rental in 2020. I have a wife and a kid on the way, and I’m a newbie. I’m currently writing down sort of a 5-year rental property plan, and I want to hear your thoughts on a principle I’m considering for risk management.

Never be more than 60% leveraged on any property that can’t be supported by your personal income.

This will allow me to buy a rental property next year, in two years I'll reuse my VA loan to buy a multifamily and house hack as we transition out of the military and to a new city. Then I might have to sit and save for a while to stick to this 60% rule.

What are your thoughts? Is this reasonable or too risk adverse? Will this principle impede my progress by a few years or a few decades?

@Patti Robertson thanks for the question! By value investing I mean buying properties that are undervalued. The lessons learned from value investing seem so applicable to Real Estate because because there is such a large human influence in each property.

I'm currently active duty military and stationed in Virginia Beach, 25 and happily married. I've been in the learning and saving phase for almost a year. My short term goal (2-3 years) with real estate is to gain experience and provide some level of passive income by acquiring 2 properties by the time I'm transitioning out of the military. Long term I would like to transition out of the military, move back to the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky) and work with Real Estate in some capacity for my day job while I continue to build my portfolio.

My interest in Real Estate Investing started after I became interested in Value Investing. While Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett concern themselves with the stock market, the concepts learned from Value Investing have made more sense to me when applied to Real Estate.

Anyway, I'm extremely excited to get started and would love to connect with other investors and companies!