All Forum Posts by: Niccole Martinez

@Daniel J Aldrich thanks for the reply! I know we will be "losing" money at first since we won't be renting the fourth unit out as living there is a VA loan requirement but the mortgage will be paid by the other three units with some left over. We also aren't offering $240k I'm just using that as our "break even" so to speak. I'm not sure how close we'll get to $100 per door since we aren't putting a down payment either.

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We are looking into purchasing our first property and it's a fourplex. We will be living in one unit but are calculating it based on being fully rented. The loan is a VA loan so 0% down. Asking price is $285k but calculations are based on $240k. Utilities and rents are based on what current owner pays/receives. It seems we would just about break even at that price but I'm trying to figure out if my calculations are correct or if I'm over/under or missing something entirely. Thanks for help/input!

@Teri Feeney Styers that is also very true! Me living there was just a possible option we were thinking of but we’re still not sure if it’s feasible for us. 

@Paul Martin My husband has a friend who does exactly that but in Georgia geared toward Section 8 renters and it's what we were originally planning on doing but couldn't find a lender to do a smaller loan. It's part of the reason we were considering doing some flips or even flip and hold with a hard money loan so we could get some quick properties. 

That’s true. I suppose I just haven’t found the right property yet! 

@Paul Martin we were thinking of that as a possibility as well but using a VA loan since I'd be staying in one unit. The problem with that scenario is that I haven't found a place that falls in our budget (aiming under 80k) that creates cash flow or at least breaks even with only one side rented. So we can go the 20-25% down route and finance less and rent all the units but then I feel like even though our cash flow will be higher, we're just getting the 30k back we just put in, if that makes sense? I'm still learning all this as I go so I have a lot swimming in my head (I tend to overthink and over analyze as it is!) so I'm trying not to get paralyzed/overwhelmed.

Hello all,

My husband and I are looking to get our first rental property as we’re interested in buy and hold. We live in Canada (he’s US military) so he can’t live there (although if we get a multi family like we want, I may stay in one unit and go to back to school). Anyhow, we have 30k cash but want to make it stretch. We’re currently looking in Syracuse, NY.  Should we go all in on a single property with a conventional loan? Should we look into a hard money lender and try to acquire two or more cheaper properties? Should we flip? I’m basically stuck at the jump-off point and I’m not sure which direction to head. Any advice would be appreciated!

Thank you @Dave Visaya! 

Hello everyone!

I'm so excited and a bit nervous to be posting here on BP! My husband has been an avid BP follower (lurker) and honestly, I have been so reluctant to believe that we could invest in real estate. He finally convinced me to check out BP last week and I have pretty much been obsessed. I might even be suffering from some information overload! 

A little about me: I am currently living in Winnipeg, Canada after living in Germany for the past four years. I am originally from Portland, Oregon. I am a stay-at-home mom of an almost three-year-old and almost one-year-old. My husband is AD military and that's how we've come to be in Winnipeg! Our goal is to have rental properties and I have some past experience in property management in Portland (although it has been a while). Investing in the Portland area is off the table right now because house prices have gotten pretty insane IMO. Since we don't live in the states, we're trying to get creative with our funding and investment areas but we haven't seemed to pick definitives in either category (although we have been checking out Georgia and Ohio mainly since they seem to be in our budget). 

I think that's the about the gist of it! I look forward to interacting and learning here!