Am I doing this right?
Hi BP, my girlfriend and I have been in the investing world for almost a year now and we have a cash flowing property we closed on about 7 months ago. I'm getting a lot of good information from books, videos, and the bigger pockets forums but I just wanted to see If we are actually investing correctly. I want to invest as efficiently as possible.
Background: Our strategy is to build up a few rental properties in our portfolio while we are young. I'm 19 and my girlfriend of 3+ years is 21 and we both live with our parents. We are teaming up by pooling money together and using our income to qualify for loans.
Our first acquisition was a single-family home with a conventional loan and 20% down. It was renovated and all we had to do was hire a manager and get a tenant in place which is what we did. The purchase price was 132,000 and we were all in cash 35,000 after closing. It was valued at 140,000 so we got a bit of equity but the reason we went with an updated home was to be safe. We will probably hold this property for years so we're banking on the fact that loan paydown will build equity in the property over the long term and any appreciation will be appreciated if it does happen. We cash flow about 400 a month.
I'm not sure if that was a sound investment but I feel like for our first one it was pretty good. I didn't want to get in a BRRR and mess things up due to inexperience.
Like I said its been 7 months and we have a bit of cash now so we've been looking around for an owner occupant FHA multifamily to house hack. Again I'm looking at properties already pretty much turn-key because of so much competition. I'm getting my offers rejected over and over by all-cash offers and I'm wondering am I even doing this right? Any tips and suggestions would be appreciated.