Is having my first flip be my home a good idea? and how to finance?
Hello BP
A quick intro as this is my first post!
I'm a new investor from Anaheim, CA. I have been trying to educate myself on REI and have learned a lot thanks to BP. Podcasts, forum and books have been incredible, i would have never felt as ready as i am if i haven't found you guys!
I had a brief real estate experience in my early 20s (2005-2006) and the rest is history given that it was family and the 2008 crash.
I have setup a website, ordered business cards, registered to the next REIAs in my are (irvine, Inland empire) , read a lot on direct mail and still reading. Plan to launch a campaign in the next 2-3 weeks.
Sorry if the intro was long. Now to my question:
My wife and i have been wanting to buy a house for about a year now. We can easily get approved for FHA. I've looked briefly into 203k loan but i don't like all the stipulations especially if we want to do some of the work given that they require licensed contractors.
Would it be a good idea to find a fixer and learn from it since either way we are needing to buy a house? and it would be nice if we can rehab it to our taste and earn an experience that if proven costly our exit strategy is in place (living in it)
Also what are our financing options? We have about $30k to spend on a new house(not including credit cards) but i don't think that is enough to get a HML to finance for example. Fixers in our area would be at least $300k+ . Ideally we would fix and then get an FHA or hopefully a conventional if there was enough equity.
Any input is greatly appreciated.