New Investor Need Advice
I’m 24 and recently moved to Austin, TX on a TN visa, working full time as an engineer. I’m looking to purchase my first long term rental property and start building a portfolio, focusing mainly on Austin and the surrounding metro area.
A little background on me, I have over $100K USD in savings, around a 790 credit score, and recently leased a car with a payment of about $375/month. My girlfriend is also working full time as an engineer, and we’re currently paying around $2,500/month in rent for our place in downtown Austin.
For those investing in real estate in 2026, if you were in my shoes, what would your first step be? Should I start talking to lenders, find an investor friendly agent, narrow down specific areas, or just start analyzing as many deals as possible?
I’m also new to the Austin area and would love to connect with other local investors. If anyone is open to grabbing a coffee sometime and chatting about real estate and their experience investing around Austin, I’d definitely be interested!
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#1 All Forums Contributor
- Investor
- Pacific Northwest
Your first step should be financing constraints before property hunting.
With strong credit and cash, you’re starting from a good position, but your TN visa status may change which loan programs/lenders are actually available to you. I’d get that box defined first: down payment, reserves, DTI treatment, owner-occupied vs investment, and what documentation they’ll require.
Then build a very tight Austin buy box and analyze only deals that fit it. Otherwise you’ll burn time underwriting properties you can’t or shouldn’t buy.
That’s how our system looks at it: capital box first, property box second, deal flow third.
Feel free to connect. We’ve been doing a lot around matching real deals against actual lender criteria.