All Forum Posts by: Nicholas L.

@Peter Wellman I've said this before and I'll say it again - I don't think renting in the short term is throwing money away.  Waiting gives you time to research, learn, and save.  And when your lease is up - no closing costs or points or finance charges.  You just move out and move on.  There will ALWAYS be deals even if prices continue to go up.

@Meredith Mihm definitely keep shopping if you have the time, but I don't think that's bad.  I got 4.75% with 25% down a few months ago from a medium size lender.

@Daniel Schwartzberg welcome!  I think what you described is a good plan.  I own a rental condo in Stamford and seriously looked at buying some fixer upper SFHs in Stamford or Norwalk for a couple years, but the purchase prices were just too expensive based on what I'm looking for.

Legit duplexes are pretty rare but will occasionally come on the market in Stamford and Norwalk and are typically pretty expensive, but in my view a good long term investment because there is such demand for housing in Fairfield County.  As I am sure you've found, Bridgeport is going to be significantly cheaper.

Since you're going to owner occupy, I would look into whatever programs let you put down the least amount of money.  This will let you keep cash for other purposes - savings, your next real estate investment, other investments, etc.

@Kathryn Click

As others have said, it's good to know how much you can borrow and also how much it costs to finance.  Closing and financing costs are often overlooked when people throw numbers around, and they are not trivial!

Question for you - you asked if you should do it "before you figure out your strategy." Do you mean what type of property you look at purchasing? Or are you really trying to decide among LTR / STR / flip / etc.?

@Koi S. it depends - usually you want positive cash flow and a reasonable return on the actual cash you invest.  Post the numbers (purchase price, expenses, projected rents).

@Brandon Diede welcome.  When you say you have $50K cash, is that $50K to invest?  Or is that all of your cash including savings, emergency fund, etc.?

@Karrie Jeffries a few questions:

-Can you pick a market that's within driving distance of where you're currently stationed?  Of course you can invest anywhere... but to @Jonathan Greene's excellent point you don't want to actually just throw darts at the country.  One way to mitigate the risk is to invest in a place where you can physically go... just to get started.  This would allow you to look at properties in person without a plane flight.

-Do you have sufficient funds to invest in an investment property - down payment, reserves, etc.?

-What would buying an investment SFH do to your ability / DTI to use a VA loan to obtain a primary down the road? Have you talked to lenders about this?

@Priya Srinivasan can you post the detailed numbers (income and expenses) so we can confirm these deals will truly net $300 a month?

@Nate Ramos OK - just introduces a lot of complexity.  Have your friend do their own, and you both learn without getting legally entangled at this early stage of your career.

@Brian Plajer you can pick any random market you like, or you can pick a market where you have some kind of connection or advantage, even if that market is not "the best" possible market.  Is there anywhere you have family, is there anywhere you used to live, is there anywhere you feel like you know well, is there anywhere within a few hours' drive?  This can be better than just picking a random market you know nothing about based on percentages and numbers.