Newbie from Fairview, TN

[Brennen Finchum]

Hi there! My name's Brennen Finchum. I live in Fairview, TN and am brand new to real estate investing. I found the Bigger Pockets podcast about a month ago and am excited about connecting and learning more about investing! My wife and I had our third baby a few weeks ago and it's more or less lit a fire under me to start investing and growing my income. I think I'm mostly interested in learning the BRRRR method, fix-and-flips, and short term rentals. I'd love to get started investing as soon as possible, but would need to finance 100% at this point. I welcome any wisdom and advice on this, specifically on finding hard money and private lenders! Thanks!

[Mikael Winkler]

Welcome, @Brennen Finchum, and congrats on getting started on your journey! Outside of learning and studying more about the concepts of REI, do you have an ability to begin saving any substantial amount for investing? Most hard money lenders will still require you to bring at least 10% of total project cost to the table on a deal. Private money by way of a friend or relative may be more feasible if you don't have a way to save significant money. But, even then, you'll want to have reserves set aside during a project. You'd also want to make sure it's a really good deal, if you're using someone else's money, especially if it's someone you care about!

Another route, if you're family is up to it (especially with the new little one), is to house hack a BRRRR. Basically, live in the property that you're completing the BRRRR on for a period of time. This would allow you to get into the property for much cheaper, often with the ability to use a 3.5% down FHA loan. My wife and I did this on our first - a duplex that we rehabbed.