Fresh College Grad - Strategy Advice

[Hossam Elaskalani]

Hi all,

I’ll keep this to the point as I’m sure there’s millions of posts like this.

My situation: Soon to be college grad (May 22), chemical engineering job making 75K before taxes. 0 debt, 720+ credit score, and about 20K in reserves.

I’ll be working in Colorado Springs, CO starting this summer and want to get some assets under my belt and there’s 2 options I see.

Option 1: buy a small SFH for myself, live in it, then after a few years buy a second small SFH and rent out the other.

Option 2: Try a BRRR but remain renting where ever I end up renting.

Option 3: repeat option 1 but with condos instead.

I have a good tolerance for risk but I want to keep things as hands off as possible long term.

Background:

I am familiar with analyzing deals, finding a good agent, etc., I was looking for deals (on market condos) for quite some time in MA while in college. But now that I know I’ll be moving to CO I’ve paused that and intend to use my funds out there.

I am open to alternative options as well.

Thank you for your time!

[Miller McSwain]

I'm in the same boat as you @Hossam Elaskalani
I'm graduating in May 2022 with an engineering degree, and then I'll move out to Colorado Springs.
Personally, I will be doing something similar to your option 1. My fiancee and I will purchase a 4-5 bed house to house-hack (renting the rest of the house by-the-room), purchasing with a 3-5% down owner-occupied loan. We will repeat the process of moving out and acquiring another house hack with low down-payments multiple times.

After moving out, we will use an enhanced cash flow method, rather than LTR, to ensure these properties cash flow. We will likely continue renting-by-the-room, but short-term-rental and corporate/medium-term rentals are also options.

If you want to learn more about the Springs market, I'd HIGHLY recommend checking out @Jenny Bayless and @Chris Lopez "Colorado Springs Real Estate Investing Podcast". They interview local investors, discuss market updates, and more.