All Forum Posts by: Mohammed Nasser

@Michael Paling

Hi Michael,

Congrats to you on making your first offer- that is awesome! I hope it all works out for you. Thanks so much for the link and suggestions-those are definitely helpful! The realestatespreadsheets.com link isnt working at the moment, but it could be that the site is under maintenance.

Thanks again and I hope you find success in your first house hack deal!

@Nick Riccio

Thank you so much! It is really helpful getting advice from someone also living in an expensive market! I agree- I think the next logical step for me aside from learning how to analyze deals would be going to RE investor meetups and connecting with other local investors.

Thanks again and I wish you all the success in your RE investing career!

@Brandon Rush

Hi Brandon, thank you so much for your reply, it was very helpful! I will check out the BP rental property calculator. As you said, in an expensive market a negative cash on cash return would be possible but I will not let it drive me crazy. Even if its a negative cash flow, if I am losing less money than I would be otherwise paying rent, then to me it would be a good deal. 

I really like the idea of going to local investor meetups. I feel like there would be investors there with a range of experience levels, all of which I could learn from. I think my next post on the BP forum will be asking if there are any local investor meetups happening in my area. What you said about it being still too soon to find a local agent makes sense. My best bet at the moment would be finding one at the local investor meetups and then learning form them as I go. They could potentially even become my mentor-exciting!

Thank you again for your input and words of wisdom! 

Hi BP Community!

I have decided to enter the field of RE investing and I am still extremely new to it (less than a month). I live in an expensive area (San Jose, CA) so the way I would like to begin my investing career is through house hacking. I know that since the Bay Area in general is so expensive, its unlikely that I would find a cash flowing property, but I believe it may be possible for me to make a good deal where I could at least live at a discount rate compared to what I would otherwise be paying in rent. I currently work a W-2 job with a decent income but I am cash poor and saving up for a deposit (planning for a FHA loan), and also have some student loans that need to be paid off (DTI currently is about 42%). I am not panning to quitting my W-2 job anytime soon but as I start to invest in RE and find house-hack deals, I have a few questions for the BP community to help me get started:

1) What are some tools I could use to find a good market near the bay area to house hack in? And are there any preferred tools (free or not free) to analyze house hack deals to see which deal would be a good one? I have been looking online and found tons of websites and videos and it could get overwhelming and so I wanted to see if there are preferred tools used in BP community?

2) Although I do not have cash saved up for a down payment at the moment, would now be still too early to look for real estate agents that have expertise in finding house hacking deals? I don't want the agents to feel like I am wasting their time if I still do not have down payment cash. is there anyone within the community willing to connect me with an agent they like?

Thank you all for your help! While I am still new to the world of RE investing, I know that the BP community will always be my side and I am excited to begin this journey of my life with you all!

@Torrell Palmason

Thanks so much for your reply, that was very helpful! For now, I am thinking of a 1 unit which I can rent bedrooms out of so I will check out the options available on Freddie Mac Homes. Also, considering that owner occupied is not allowed along with the higher rates and higher reserve requirements, a DSCR loan would not be the right one for me at the moment.

Thanks again for all your help!

Hi BP community!

I plan to enter RE investing through house hacking but I am a complete beginner and wanted to ask a question regarding loans. I am in the process of saving up cash for a down payment and I know one of the options for house hacking would be a FHA loan for a 3.5%-5% down payment. I have also heard on some of the bigger pockets podcasts about debt service coverage ratio loan (DSCR) which is a loan that is given based on the potential income a house can generate. My questions are the following:

1) Is it common for these loans to be given to new RE investors that are investing in their first property or does there need to be a prior track record/experience in investing? What would be the minimum down payment needed?

2)What would be the general process for getting this loan? Do I find the property first, run the numbers to make income from the house would cover the mortgage and then apply for the loan or is it something that I can get pre-approved for?

3) I have been looking online and there seems to be a lot of companies that provide DSCR loans, but do any experienced real estate investors on this forum have any they recommend?

Again, I am completely new to this field and I am still studying about RE investing, so I apologize if any of these questions seem silly, and I would really appreciate any help I can get in answering these questions! Thank you all very much!

@Thomas O'Donnell

Hi Thomas! I do not have any advice for you as I am still extremely new to RE investing but I just wanted to say congratulations to you and best of luck for getting that much closer to financial freedom through real estate investing! I have just started learning about investing in very much the same way you did (podcasts, books, YouTube and ofcourse BP) and also have the goal of house hacking in the near future! Reading your post is truly inspiring. Again, congrats and best of luck to you and your girlfriend and I sincerely hope you achieve your goals of financial freedom!

@Demetrius Hill

Hi Demetrius, welcome to BP. I, much like you, am very new to RE investing and the BP community. I also work in a field not related to real estate or investing. The BP community has been so helpful to me in learning, I posted my first post 4 days ago and have gotten so many helpful replies on it. I am sure your experience on here will be the same!  Best of luck to you!

@Chad Hale

Hi Mr. Hale,

Thanks so much for your input. I agree, even from what I have studied so far in the courses that prep for the RE license, I haven't really learned anything that I feel would help me with investing. The general consensus on this post is that since I am interested in becoming an investor, I should shift focus to learning how to analyze deals and from your post, learn how to assemble a strong team. Thank you again for your input, it was very helpful!

@Drew Sygit

Hi Mr. Sygit,

It seems like that is the general recommendations I am getting from this post. I will change the focus of my efforts from getting a real estate license to networking and finding other investors in my area that I can connect with and hopefully be able to learn from. Along with using the resources on BP and other platforms/investors I connect with to learn how to analyze deals and be able to identify a proper investment. Thanks so much for your comment!