Hi everyone, I just closed on my first property and I’m already looking for ways to get my next one. I bought my property with a 203k loan and will have about 20k in equity once the work is complete. I’ve considered many strategies for obtaInIng my next property which I’d like to be a 2-4 unit multi family. I was thinking about using a heloc or equity loan as funds for the down payment on the next one but I am worried that I’ll have a hard time getting a mortgage on a second property due to my low military income of about 45k annually. Any advice or insight is appreciated!

@Nathan Doherty

Have you considered house hacking that is living in one of the units and rent out the remaining units. If so, you may qualify for an FHA loan with about a 3% down payment requirement.

@Milton Rivera I have, but my concern is that I may have trouble getting a bank to give me another mortgage based on my income

@Nathan Doherty

What is the plan for the first property?  If you are going to keep it as a rental, the key is for that property to be cash flow positive.  In essence, the property will be considered as additional income.  The lender will most likely look for you to have a reserve fund (say three months of mortgage).  They will also take about 80% of the revenue from the rental (the remaining 20% will be considered vacancy).  I recommend calling the bank and/or a broker to see what other tips they could provide. 

@Milton Rivera I will be living in the first property but could rent it out and cash flow pretty well eventually, I either would want to do that and house hack the next one or stay in this one and have all units occupied in the next one, just depends on the numbers I suppose.