All Forum Posts by: Katherine Nally

@Erik Matthew I’m not choosing a fourplex because I know that it doesn’t really matter what your first deal is, the first deal is about learning.

My plan is to find a duplex that is a good deal and learn with one tenant and 2 units to upkeep. I know myself and working full time, going to grad school, and managing 3 tenants/4 units all at the same time without any experience would be too overwhelming. I’ll start with a duplex, focus on learning everything I can, and branch out from there after a year or 2.

@William Glass Thanks for the input! Since I am currently long distance looking at properties is a bit complicated, but you're right, I'll start looking when I can.

I grew up in Cape Coral, small world!

@Cassi Justiz Thanks for the advice! My other concern is my full-time job. My plan is to tell them mid-March that I'm moving mid-June, but offer to stay on remotely (the company currently has 4 full-time remote employees). 

Either way I don't want to give them a timeline and then move it up, I know that 3 months is plenty of notice but it seems bad manners to say they have 3 months to figure it out one way or another and it ends up being 2 months or less.

Hello all,

I currently live in Atlanta, GA, looking to move to Birmingham, AL this summer when my lease is up and buy a duplex to live in half using an FHA loan for my first property. I've done the research and found out that for an FHA loan you have to take residence of the property within 60 days of closing. For my specific situation that means closing couldn't be any earlier than April 16th.

My question is, how long does the closing process take? I found a duplex I'm really interested in in Birmingham, but I feel like it might be too early to schedule a visit to check it out and potentially put an offer on it. Some sources I've found seem to think closing could take 30-60 days, especially using an FHA loan, and 60 days back from my earliest closing date is February 15th, so maybe it isn't too early to schedule a visit? I haven't yet applied to different mortgage companies to get pre-approved, because again I'm not sure if it's too early or not.

As you can probably tell I'm a little anxious to get started and taking action, but I don't want to jump the gun and screw up timing (mortgage pre-approval expires and I have to reapply, find a home run property but the seller wants to close sooner than April 16th so I lose it, etc). What do you think is the best timing for me to do of all of this, given my constraints?

Thanks in advance for your help!