Owner Occupied Property

[Tyler Deuel]

I'm 23 years of age and a recent college grad looking to begin investing in real estate. I am currently looking to purchase a 4-5 bedroom home in NJ with a partner. We each plan to live in it and rent the remaining rooms for the year. We are looking to finance the purchase with an FHA loan and stay within a one-hour commute to Manhattan.

I have been searching for good deals on Zillow and Trulia as well as talking with a few different brokers. The property is going to need some aesthetic repairs in order to increase value.

After reading the Bigger Pockets "The Book on Investing in Real Estate With No and Low Money Down" this seemed like a good strategy to get me going. My partner and I both have good credit and good jobs at major financial services firms but limited capital. 

Any advice on financing this purchase, financing the repairs, finding a great deal, or overall investing strategy would be appreciated! 

[John Casmon]

@Tyler Deuel Sounds like you have a good general plan to start out. Here are a few more things to consider as you go down this path:

- Ensure you can rent the rooms (not units, right?) in your target area
- Thoroughly screen these roommates as this will make or break your investment 
- Figure out the structure of your partnership - do both of you own the home? are both of you on the mortgage? how is equity split? who handles what responsibilities? what happens if you decide it's not working 4 months into it?
- FHA allows you to put as little as 3.5% down
- For financing repairs, you can just save the money and do the repairs as you have the capital, look at private loans or use credit cards, but this is more risky

Good luck with your search!