Starting small in Real Estate

[Norman Benders]

Hello all. New to the real estate investing game and amongst the many pieces I've gotten was "start small". I'm in the Atlanta area, and would like to start small, question is, what is a "good small" to begin with? What were the sizes of some of your 1st investments?

[Dave Van Horn]

Hi @Norman Benders

I often suggest new investors start by buying "purposefully" with their first properties, if possible. What I mean by that is, individuals are allowed purchase up to 10 properties in their own name. I always say, buy as many units as you can as an owner occupant to get preferred financing terms. If you haven't bought your very first home, FHA financing is some of the best around (probably only beat by VA loans).

Whenever a newbie asks me what they should buy with FHA financing, I tell them to go multi-family (up to 1-4 family) rather than SFR. Why not get 2,3, or even 4 units as opposed to 1? And what's cool about owner occupant financing is the lender will often count the rent from the other units towards your income and enables you to buy bigger.

Best of luck,

Dave