All Forum Posts by: Adrian Teng-Amnuay

I'm interested in buying a vacation home that can double as a real estate investment. I'm hoping it's possible to have my cake and eat it too, so curious to see if anyone else has attempted something similar before.

I'm a Los Angeles native working in tech with a pretty good income. Despite the fallout of the pandemic, 2020 was a pretty good year for stocks to say the least, and I'd like to diversify some of that into a more tangible asset like real estate. I'm currently looking at homes in Chandler and Scottsdale AZ, as well as Austin TX as I believe these to be great opportunities for appreciation, and I could see myself potentially moving out there after a few years.

I would be looking to buy with a loan due to all time low interest rates. At the same time, I don't want to buy a home which will simply sit while I pay the mortgage down, so ideally I would buy a SFH and rent in the meantime, eventually converting it into a vacation home somewhere down the line. I realize the implication is that loans on a rental are usually less favorable than say a primary or secondary residence, but I would imagine it still beats (from a financial perspective) holding an unused second home by a long shot.

Would be interested to see if anyone has done something similar. This is primarily an appreciation / vacation home play. I don't mind being slightly cash flow negative if it means I can take advantage of low interest rates and a booming geographic market.

Hi Nick,

Thanks a lot for the informative reply. 

I can see myself staying in LA long-term and house-hacking is definitely something I am considering. As for living in the west-side, I am willing to commute up to an hour or so which opens up south LA and Long Beach so I have been researching those areas as well.

My budget of 20-50k isn't set in stone but it was an amount I felt comfortable spending to "get my feet wet" in real estate so to speak. I realize that is pretty low for an LA house-hack that I would be comfortable living in, so I will definitely re-evaluate it.

Best,

Adrian

Hello!

My name is Adrian. I'm a Los Angeles native, age 27 and I currently work in Santa Monica as a software developer. I've always been a big saver by habit, but these last few years I've spent a lot of time reading and learning about personal finance, which has led me to up my 401k contributions and invest most of my net worth into stock index funds tracking the market.

I subscribed to Audible earlier this year and came across Brandon Turner's "The book on rental property investing" audiobook a few months ago which has, in addition to getting a few laughs out of me, strongly convinced me that real estate belongs in my portfolio.

I'm an extremely cautious person by nature which is why I'm hesitant to jump into into real estate right away. My plan is to continue going through the literature, analyze deals for practice, and hopefully grow my network on the BiggerPockets forum over the next year before pulling the trigger on my first property.

Based on my research, I've found that properties in LA are comparatively expensive and don't seem to cash flow very well. That has left me with a conundrum: For a newbie's first project, do I pursue a local house-hacking project or do I look into investing remotely in cheaper, more investor friendly areas?

I've started socking away money every month to save up for my first property and ideally I'd like to spend ballpark $20k-$50k. I accept that I may make some valuation mistakes starting out, so this is an amount I feel comfortable risking for my first project.

I'm looking forward to the replies and hopefully you'll be seeing more of me around the forums from now on!

Cheers,

Adrian Teng