Reject the candidate if the client selected the property.What were your primary selection criteria?

What I recommend to all my first time investor clients is to start with house hacking.House hacking is a great way to get your feet wet with REI and also getting your own roof over your head. 2 birds, 1 stoneThe biggest benefit for newer investors that go the house hacking route is that they have the ability to put a minimum downpayment of 3.5% or 5% down depending on the loan program and also get access to the best rates since they are buying a primary residenceIf you ever want to chat more about RE, I would be happy to do so.

Nothing fancy, just casual conversations, some goal accountability, and lessons learned.

April,If you need to protect your assets like large sums of money in your accounts, Equity in primary, equity in other homes it is wise to get an LLC. 

So basically her buying this other downsized house is contingent upon the sale of here current primary residence which I believe makes her offer a lot weaker especially in our hot Bay Area market. 

@Gil Segev Remember that I said how important goals are?

I don't have piles of cash to fund my ventures yet, maybe one day.My goals in real estate are, initially, to provide some financial stabilization in the current moment, and ultimately to be able to have assets and security to pass on to my daughter. 

Two of them are VA loans (I have three VA loans total including my current primary residence). 

@Dave Foster is there a certain amount of time you have to wait to convert the 1031 property into your primary residence?

(Obviously your primary would not be eligible for a 1031 but would be 100% tax free.) if you owned it less than a year you’d owe regular taxes and I’d suggest holding on for a year if possible.