Should I try house hacking?

[Devyn Grillo]

Hey guys, please read this and help me out. Your time is much appreciated. I’m going to be graduating from college this coming June in one of the hottest markets, Seattle. I love the idea of house hacking but there are very few options on the MLS to even do it, let alone at a reasonable price ($600k+). So what can you do? Not much that i can figure...but real estate investing is all about leveraging time so i dont want to just sit around. So I found Brandon Turners, “Build $1M in Net Worth Through Real Estate With 5 Purchases Over 7 Years” plan. It says step one is finding a property that’ll cash flow $10k/year and you can buy for $80k. When I graduate should I try to do this plan and just rent (yuck).. there’s just not much opportunity for house hacking here but I want to be doing something when I graduate.

[Michael Garofalo]

@Devyn Grillo, I live in Washington DC which is arguably one of the most expensive markets in the country. I rented for a few years then decided to make a sacrifice by living at home for almost a year to save up necessary cash for my first down payment. If this is an option you can take advantage of while you're first starting out, I would highly recommend it. Despite what many people may lead you to believe, building up a real estate portfolio takes time and discipline--it doesn't just happen overnight and that goes for any market (no matter how inexpensive or expensive it might be). 

My candid advice would be to save your money and be very smart about your first purchase, rather than rushing into something right after college.  As you know, real estate is a relatively illiquid investment so you want to be really sure about what you are getting into before you pull the trigger.