All Forum Posts by: Branden Sewell

@Nathan G. As of now, we are set to close the end of this month. We have no money down, and all closing costs covered. If everything goes as planned we will be in the property by November. We will be house hacking this one for our first investment. During that time we will save up and purchase another property strictly as a rental property. I will send updates as we move forward.

My wife and I have our first deal pending under contract! We are excited and have great expectations for this property and eventually turning it into our first rental property. Thanks to BiggerPockets I found a real estate agent in my market that offered to meet with me. After connecting through BiggerPockets we met and as a result I fired my other agent and hired him. He showed me that the very things my other agent was telling me wasn’t possible were actually very possible. I made a post before about things not going the way I thought. So many people recommended getting a new agent and I listened. It made all the difference in the world. Set to close October 30th! Sometimes you aren’t getting a deal because of bad information. Keep pushing until you get the right answers from the right people and make things happen!

Okay so I am pre approved to buy a SFH up to $207K and up to $275K on a multi family (1-4 Units).

Strategies I am considering:

1) Buy a SFH in a good area at a good price. Live in it for 2-3 years while fixing it up a little and saving some money. Buy something else and start renting the SFH.

2) Buy a duplex in a bad area at a good price. Live in it and house hack it. Save money and get my next deal. Challenge here is that a duplex in my area at a price that would cash flow is going to be in a really bad area, or it is going to need a ton of work and I don't have a lot of cash. Really limited supply. I would probably be taking all that money and fixing it up. Plus being that we are doing a FHA Loan it makes it hard to be competitive on these duplexes when investors with Cash buy them up so fast.

I'm really stuck and not sure what to do. Do I buy the single family home, or keep fighting to find a duplex?

One thing I do know is that I don't want to keep paying someone else mortgage. Our lease is up in December and I really don't want to renew our lease, and month to month is way too much money.

HELP! What would you do?

@Jay Shapiro A lot of people seem to not be a fan of single family? Why is that? I do love the idea of someone else paying my mortgage.

Alright so if a deal was rated on a 1-10, a 10 being the best, should I settle for an 8? Here is my struggle. My wife and I are in the market to buy our first home. Ideally we would love to house hack a duplex but prices in my market are super high. When something reasonable priced comes on the market it is gone in days. There are duplexes in “D” areas which are personally less desired areas. Is it worth it to buy a less appealing duplex that is in a not so desirable area? Or should I just buy a decent single family home and then sell it in two years and use the profit to buy a nicer duplex in the area I would really like to be in? Any recommendations are appreciated!

@Account Closed

I totally hear you but i have heard of crazier things. Some of the stories I hear are straight from the BiggerPockets podcast. People do some risky stuff but turn out to get some high rewards.

I get it though. A lot of people dont want to take those kind of risks. 

Thanks for your feedback on here!

@Alex V. I greatly appreciate your response. I clearly don’t know a whole lot but that is why I am here. I am here to learn and grow. I know I am going to be wrong about things. I came here for help and I found that and I also found a lot of condescending remarks. Anyway, thanks again for your feedback. It is greatly appreciated and right along the lines of what I expected from this forum posts.

@Travis Henderson Absolutely! I definitely plan to be smart about it. I’m simply saying I am going to work hard to try to make that sooner than later. I’m listening to the advice for sure. I wouldn’t move on a bad deal just to make a timeline. But if I can be ready for a good deal in 4 months then I want to do what I can to move on it. I appreciate your feedback and I wish nothing but the best to you in your future investing endeavors.

@Courtney M. Thanks for the feedback. Great advice. I’m going to take a lot of this amazing advice into consideration and see what my options are. I appreciate it. Best wishes on your future investments as well!

@Jack B. Risk is obvious. If I was trying to avoid risk I would sit at home and never do anything. Some people say the market isn’t going to experience the same bust that it did in prior years. Others say next year it is coming. Isn’t that all speculative? I heat A LOT of varying opinions. Why do you believe we are heading for another recession? What are you doing with your real estate investments to prepare for the recession you anticipate?