All Forum Posts by: Donald Bastien

Hope this helps Donald! Good luck on your future endeavor. 

@Donald Bastien use the VA loan, you are going to save and avg of .5% interest rate and save $1500-2500 for closing costs/fees. 0% down vs 3-5% down payment. You will qualify easier for the 30 year, in price of house and also gives yourself the cushion, as Dominick mentioned. Also if you are here this is going to help you build wealth, Dave Ramsey is more for just not buying into the "keeping up the the Jones's" mindset.

The right time to buy is always now, as long as the Price is right. Now you have options, buy what makes sense for you. If you are the types that has to have a yellow house with 10 windows and faces east... well good for you but you will be the guy paying a premium but give yourself time and be a little flexible, due to the MLS is an auction, also look for off market properties.

VA Loan you can buy up to 4 unit, you can also buy property with 2 homes easily as it is an ADU.

Now if you know you are only going to live here short term 1-2 years and then in 2 years you are going to have your forever home and max out your eligibility, I would wait on the VA loan..

What other questions do you have?

Time is the most valuable component of investing. I would suggest doing the VA loan. If you plan to house hack anyways, who cares if you have 0% down or 20% if someone else is paying the majority of the mortgage. Why lock yourself into a 15 year loan when you could do a 30 year fixed and make double payments to pay it off in 15? Then if you have a tight month, you only have to pay the 30 year mortgage rate.

No cash needed, find a seller finance deal with 0% down. I have plenty of connections in Houston if you need them 

Welcome Donald! There are different price points around Miami, it's gotten more expensive over the last couple of years like most places, but it is no where near the New York or California areas. It's cyclical here too, more highs and lows than the average market. I guess the easiest answer is to tell you to bring as much as you can and see what's available when you get here! Feel free to connect if you need anything. 

Welcome to Real Estate

"I am looking to start investing in real estate when I arrive there and I am going to obtain my real estate license for additional knowledge."

Great Idea  I got my license for the same reason, still a realtor after 18 years. Why work as anything else if you are going to be an investor in the industry.  

"but I will be more focused on the investment side as opposed to the realtor side. 

Did the same my first Investing-foreclosure etc course was 5000.00 for a week .... well money expended if not will take you couple of years and brokers and headaches to learn..

You cant learn how to ride a bike on a webinar.... you need hands on.

Any recommendations on how much cash to have in order to get started and what the Miami market is currently like now?"'

the knowledge will help you answer this. 

PS: yes start investing in your backyard...

good luck

Welcome to BP!

I can't speak for the Miami market, but as another newbie investor, I'd like to offer some advise that's helped me quite a bit.

Network! Get to a local meetup, learn about deals other investors are putting together. What are they doing right that you might be able to emulate? What are some of the horror stories you hear? Learn from them.

Define your why and how. I know my long term goal is to build generational wealth. How am I going to do that? Maybe it's buying rental properties. Don't have a bunch of cash to tie up into a long term investment? Get creative, there's so many tools that can allow you to break into real estate, pick what works best for your situation and get really good at it.

Lastly, just start. Put yourself out there and connect with others. Joining this forum is already a great start!