I am an aspiring real estate investor in the San Antonio area. My husband is in medical school and I just finished my masters in engineering. Luckly, I graduated debt free and so did he for his undergrad (he is currently taking out loans to pay for med school). Both of our cars are paid off so we do not have any debt to our names other than his med school debt. I will begin working very soon and we will be able to reduce the amount of loan $$ we have been borrowing. My question is, should we take advantage of the loan money and use it to pay of our monthly rent to help me save up as much as I can, or should we just upfront use the loan money directly to invest in real estate? Or should we just keep it safe and not take out extra loan money and slowly try to save up $$ from my engineering salary? BTW, loan interest rate is fixed at 5.28%
Investor · Youngstown, OH · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes
4y
When you say loan money, do you mean money you're earning that you would be using to pay off his med school loans? I'm not following what revenue you're referring to.
Sorry for not being clear, I am referring to the money hes taking out to pay for school. They give him the option to take out for living expenses as well. So I was wondering if we should take advantage of that and directly start investing. Or maybe use the loan money to pay off our monthly rent that way I can save money faster from my earned salary and use that to start investing.
Lender · Charlotte, NC · Member since 2022 · 739 posts · 410 votes
4y
Hi @Jessica Gonzalez, I would not use it to pay your rent to save up money. That yields a 0% interest rate which means that you now have less money.
If you invest directly in real estate with the money, you would need to ensure a return of at least 5.28%. That way, you get infinite cash-on-cash returns.
Hope this helps! Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
Contractor · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2010 · 2k+ posts · 3k+ votes
4y
I like your creative thinking but no I don't think you should have your husband take out student loans to invest in real estate. There are plenty of leverage options that are tailored to real estate investors.
Just save up as much money as you can, and start talking with different lenders about your mortgage options.