New Member from North Jersey

[Eric Kim]

Hi,

My name is Eric and I am 24 years old, working in Finance. Looking to gradually build a RE portfolio, and have been reading up on the materials available on this blog and elsewhere (bookstores, blogs, etc.).

My long-term real estate goal is to build a portfolio that can provide $10K of monthly rental income. I haven't yet figured out how many houses that would require, but to start I I've decided to focus on North Jersey and multi-family homes. I also work in Manhattan so ideally finding a MF in Hoboken/Edgewater/Weehawken would allow me to declare primary residence and get the mortgage tax benefits. I've seen properties with 7%+ cap rates in this area, so that, aside from location, is my only filter.

I have two questions for this forum, and the first is on timing. I see existing home sales and valuations at or above pre-crisis at the moment, and wondering if I should wait for a market correction before buying my first property? Would be interested in hearing everyone's thoughts on why they are currently looking to purchase (i.e. whether they think the cheap financing offsets higher valuations).

Secondly, are there any investors from North Jersey available for coffee / willing to let me shadow on a Saturday?

Thanks!