Looking to start my real estate journey

[Brandon M.]

Hello all, 👋 my name is Brandon.

I am a 41yr old father of 3 kids (20, 13, 8) and husband. I been working as a lineman for a local utility company for 16 years now. We bought our first house in 2018 at quite a deal compared to the market today.

I've come to gain alot of interest in real estate, alongside stock market investing, in the last couple years. Last month I began listening to the Bigger Pocket Podcast, dating back to January 2026. The stories I've heard so far til this point have heavily peaked my interest into beginning our real estate journey. While atm we don't have the cash to do a down payment on a rental, I want to begin looking, and learning, about our options.

We did a HELOC on the house couple years ago to consolidate debt and pay off some old side business debts. While things have been staying steady, I want to make more money over time and invest into areas that we want to travel/ retire eventually. I make six-figures atm and put away a good portion into my 401K. My child support is over August of next year which will put $1200/month back into my pocket. So hopefully by then I can have more debt cleared and then make our first investment purchase shortly after.

I'd rather not invest in anything local unless it's the right deal. NY is only becoming more expensive to live here, let alone invest. We plan to leave NY when I retire and move to South. I have family in different areas down south which are Myrtle Beach, Florida, North Carolina. I definitely have a goal of owning a place along the coast at some point in time.

I am most interested into house hacking, long-term and short-term rentals, and multi-family homes.

Couple of questions to start:

1. Is it best to start a LLC right from the start, or when we begin could we just do without it being a business?

2. I don't want to do a LLC here in NY, I heard about doing an anonymous LLC through Wyoming. Is this something to consider? Or other options to start a LLC out of NY?

3. For those that invest out of state, what is that like to do? How did you handle flying/driving to an area to see if it's worth investing?

4. My older son has been doing good so far getting through some college and landed a good starting job, but doesn't pay much atm. If I were to invest locally, could I use him to do a house hack? As in, we both purchase a multi-family home together and then he moves in but not myself. If that makes sense. I know from one of the podcast they talked about certain types of loans that require the purchaser to live there. 

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but this has been stuff I've been wanting to know more about currently. 

Thank you all!

-Brandon

[Allie McAlister]

Hey @Brandon M.

Welcome to Bigger Pockets! You're in the right place. All of the questions you are asking are good ones. Do you have any markets that you are interested in at this point? Happy to schedule a call and fill you in on how we work with out of state investors here in Memphis, TN. 

Best of luck!