New Jersey: Advice for a Young Beginner

[David Flores]

Hello Bigger Pockets World,

I am a young 23 year old Financial Analyst in New Jersey and me and my buddy are learning all the ropes in real estate to buy our first home. Some things we did to get a head start was to open a business to protect ourselves and we are now in talks with a PNC mortgage banker just to get key information and ask questions so we will be ready once we make the big move (buying our first home). 

Some things that would help during this discussion is the following:

What banks are best in terms of mortgages?

We are looking to buy a home in one of the neighboring cities of Manhattan (Hoboken, North Bergan, Jersey City, ect). Which one is prime for rental properties?

We are going to be using the house hacking strategy to put down as minimal money as possible. Any advice?

Any other advice or information would be really helpful! I am all open ears!! Thanks everyonee

[Account Closed]

I wouldn't define it as only this but clearly I'm not interested in red , orange or yellow areas shown on the Greenville area here.  The amount of hours spent, problems you will deal with and increased maintenance cost is a real thing that can't be seen in preliminary numbers.  Deferred maintenance.  You can get properties cheap but the amount of extra work needed to create those margins is not worth the risk/reward in my opinion. You have to think about your exit as well, who can I sell this in a couple years if I want out or if I have to get out if times get tough.

Close to mass transit, as close as you can to the nicer areas that are visibly improving. The farther west and the farther south you go the less interested I am also because rents are so low there.  I am more interested in cities like Union City, North Bergen, West New York and Guttenberg to be honest but jersey city has a few good opportunities as well.