So I spent the last year taking care of an elderly family member and in exchange he left me the house he built himself in the 70s that has no mortgage. It is in pretty good condition, slight repairs for comfort but good otherwise. I just feel so overwhelmed as I know this is an amazing opportunity, but I have only lightly looked into the real estate world and investing. My goals are to have financial freedom and time freedom within the next few years and I know this is an amazing opportunity to do so. I am just not sure the best route to take for this.

My plan at the moment is to get the basement finished and move into there while renting the top part out, with taking a home equity loan for the basement and minor remodeling for upstairs, I can pay that off in a few years with my full time job and renting the top. Then after that I want to take another out and use that to buy a second home with the plan of using it for AirBNB or similar income stream. Then repeat as I pay that one off with the 3 streams on income.

Although I also thought about potentially doing the basement and renter part, but then also immediately using the rest to try and flip a home so I can attempt to pay it off quickly then move to the AirBNB or similar plan. Although, I know that is risky and as someone who knows very little about that maybe it is best I don't take that risk.

I am just in decision paralysis and want to figure out the best plan that achieves my two goals within a timeframe of 1 - 5 years. The sooner the better. I am here looking for advice, suggestions, ideas, etc. Things to help me stop feeling so overwhelmed and anxious about everything regarding this new world I am about to enter and learn how to best traverse it.

Edit: The inherence tax is paid off, I have lived in the house a few months and enjoy living in it, I can take care of the bills, I’ve had it appraised already, spoken to realtors and remodeling for price points. I feel a lot of people misunderstand why I made this. I want to educate myself on this process and figured there may be some nuggets of advice in all the crabs in the bucket here. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme or anything like that, simply have a lot of options on my plate now and want to think about what could be best for me. I also work mainly with real estate agents and property owners who have already been helping me a lot and offering a lot of advice or guidance. Also for the people saying to just live in the house and that’s it, I do not plan to live here for the rest of my life in fact I’d really like to move from this state at some point and I thinking there’s nothing wrong with planning for the future and trying to make it work out best for myself. I’m not in love with any one idea yet, just so much to consider and look into. Thanks to the actual advice given, it was helpful and I will be looking into a lot of things as I have already been!

Some of my best burglary prevention tips came from my last realtor. Because she had to handle so many empty houses she gave great suggestions like:

• Get a fake proximity alarm that triggers a dog bark.
• Get a fake TV projector (or since TV are so cheap just leave a TV on).
• Leak big work boots in front of the house.
• Put flood lights with good sensors everywhere.

I'm considering moving to a less safe neighborhood. Was wondering if the fine people of this subreddit have other tips?

I'm less concerned about losing money. Only concern I have is the physical safety of my family.

Mom left my sister and I her house. It’s just been sitting there for like half a year. It’s an old house, needs lots of work like fixed plumbing & AC. We have people interested in renting it or possibly selling it. Finding tenants is not an issue, we just haven’t been ready yet. We live in a small farm town in Texas with minimal places to live. We are telling every one of its condition and wanting as low of responsibility as possible (we don’t have the funds to fix these things right now) My sister wants to rent to own, I want to rent it as. Around $600-750. The people interested are simple living folks, offering to fix things themselves - all seem desperate. We want to be fair and make some cash flow if possible. My sister is concerned on the profit but I would like to keep it long term and have it as cash flow for the foreseeable future. Any advice? We’re both young - I’m going to grad school far away. Any advice on what to do? Legally? Morally? Anything helps.

I’m thinking about buying my first house — I’m 28 and single.

I live in Illinois but my family is Florida so I’m starting to look at property there. Im looking for an property that I can rent out partially (guest house/ airbnb) ; grow a garden ; avoid high taxes ; and will be a good investment. Looking for places under $500k right now.

Since my family lives in Florida and there’s a lot of tax benefits, I’m looking around central Florida— love the Gainesville/Alachua due to proximity to Springs, access to nature, affordable prices. I am not very conservative but that area seems to have a good diversity w the university and Krishna community.

What are people’s thoughts on property in Florida — is it a good idea to invest there? Will property values go up or down over time? Do the tax benefits make it worth it? What are the challenges? Will it be destroyed by climate change?

I've dreamt of being in real estate investment for long term and short term rental properties for the last 12 years but am always stumped on how to get involved when you don't have upfront capital. I have owned and sold three houses that have been my own personal home and have always made an incredible profit, however, I have always needed to use that profit for a down payment on my next home for myself and my family. What advice would you give someone knowing this information, Would you recommend investing or would you steer someone away from it given the current rates? All advice welcome.

I am getting a little frustrated trying to get my first investment property. I am worried my inexperience might let me lose out on a good opportunity... if you can even call it that by now.

I found a generational home with separate entrances, kitchens, and even laundry rooms. It is turn-key ready and listed at $415K. I estimated a cashflow of around $750 a month if I rent both units separately. I place a $420K offer and got out-bid by someone who offered $435K with the contingency that the buyers home sells and goes under contract in a week. The seller just accepted the contingency offer without even speaking to me, someone who is ready to sign papers and has the money to back it up now.

Now the seller is coming back to my real estate agent saying how they messed up and should have at least gave me the opportunity to counter. They sent me a counter offer to review but real negotiations between the seller and I would only happen if the contingency buyer is unable to place their home under contract in a week.

The counter offer was $430K with a 5K appraisal gap and I am to pay all transfer and recordation taxes plus buyer covers 0.25% of agent commission. My agent told me that $435K was competitive price for what the home has compared to what's in the market.

I feel like this is all under the table just to give the seller all the warm and fuzzy feelings of having a sale no matter what. While I have no security and have to negotiate with someone obviously just going behind my back anyways to try and find the best deal. The seller had other offers, but all were contingency offers except for mine. It feels as if the seller will just do the same game again.

What do you all think? I was thinking that even though the sellers are a pain and a bit disrespectful, the cashflow would be worth it. I was thinking of counter offering with $430,000 with no appraisal gap and split transfer and recordation taxes and buyer covers buyer agent commission.

Excited to hear your insights!

EDIT: I came here looking for constructive advice on structuring an offer, not to be lectured about how I’m ‘too emotional’ or ‘entitled’ for wanting clarity in a major financial decision. I fully understand that real estate is a business and that sellers can accept whatever offer they want, but my concern was how to navigate this situation strategically; especially because it does feel shady and frustrating so please understand my skepticism.

I do appreciate the few who actually engaged with my questions and provided thoughtful responses about offer structuring and alternative investment strategies. That’s the kind of discussion I was hoping to have. It’s disappointing that so many responses default to condescension rather than guidance. If you have insights on making competitive but smart offers, I’d love to hear them. If you’re just here to tell me how naive I am, this probably isn’t the discussion for you.

Sorry for the ignorance but i wanted to ask:

I'm interested in investing in real estate (like a house or flat), but I don't have enough capital to do it alone. I'm wondering if there's a way to partner with other investors, where we all contribute money and each person owns a percentage of the property and the returns.

Has anyone here done this before? How do you find trustworthy co-investors or set up something like this? Are there platforms or communities for this kind of group investment?

Any advice or experience is appreciated!

Just closed yesterday on my first investment property. A duplex in Detroit. It’s tenant occupied and the combined rent is $2075.

I paid cash for the property but would like to cash out refinance at some point in semi-near future so I can leverage more of my cash.

Purchase price was $140K and the appraisal came in at $186K.

Property management is on at 8% (I live in California). Will be doing the roof as it needs replacement plus some minor repairs. I signed up for regular homeowners insurance for now, but can switch to landlords insurance in 60 days.

Any advice for a first time landlady?

EDIT: Landlords insurance policy is effective today

I’m honing in on real estate and have about 5-10k in my 401k I’m willing to invest in real estate. This is my apprenticeship phase as I’m new to the game. I don’t expect many people to reply and give their advice as many spent years mastering the game.

If you’re open to discussing any tips or things to look out for I’m all ears. I’m going through the process of reading and researching as much as I can before I jump into real estate? Why? I don’t come from a wealthy family so my first deal needs to be a banger or at least close to one.

Thank you guys I really appreciate it and anything I can do for you for advice I will… if it’s in my arms reach! 🙂

Ok, somebody help me out here.

I'm somebody who's been involved in equity investing for a few years, and I have some interest in getting into real estate, but I can just never seem to make the math work.

For example, I was looking at a home in my local area (rural, deep south U.S.) today. It was selling for $115k. I'd estimate it would rent for ~$750 per month.

I've generally been told to expect to spend about half of the monthly rental income on expenses. I also think it's wise to have at least 10% of rental income as profit even after accounting for a mortgage. That means I want a mortgage payment no greater than $300 per month.

Mortgage rates are roughly 7.5% at the moment, so that means I want a mortgage no larger than just under $43k. That means I should put 72k down.

Then if I estimate long term property appreciation at the long term average growth rate of ~5% nominal per year which lines up with long term U.S. average annual growth in home values and my leverage rate of ~1.6x, I get a long term growth of ~8% per year on my investment, plus I'm profiting $75 per month on the rental for an annual return on my investment of 1.25% or a total return of ~9.25% per year.

Now, in the equities world I generally use ~10% per year in returns as a hurdle rate, so it looks like from this property I might be looking at lower returns than I'd get from an index fund for a hell of a lot more effort and risk.

This isn't the only time my analysis has showed this outcome. It almost always shows this result.

Obviously if you jack up the leverage a lot (like a 20% down payment would) or get lucky with price increases (like the last few years have been) or get lucky with mortgage rates (which have been low for most of the past decade or two, though long term averages are more like the current environment) or can keep your expenses down (if you have the expertise to do so) things can look a lot different, and I may be being overly conservative in all of these numbers, but everything I wrote down seems reasonable to me and lines up with general real estate investing guidelines I read online.

Are the massive returns people get in real estate really all just some combination taking on a lot of risk with a lot of leverage and getting lucky with price appreciation and/mortgage rates or am I missing something else?

Edit: It seems like the answer to my final question is mostly "yes" but sometimes other factors come into play.

A big one that commenters have mentioned several times is buying distressed properties and renovating them in order to make purchase price lower. It seems a lot of people think my purchase price is too high, but it's pretty in line with market averages. I don't know if the analogy fits, but to go back to equity investing, in that world it is VERY hard to consistently beat market averages. Maybe it's easier to find better deals in real estate? I could buy that simply because the liquidity level is MUCH lower than equities, and I would think that would lead to more inefficient markets.

It also seems most people here think that 50% of rent for expenses is too high, and it also seems that many of you do a lot of the work of managing the maintaining the properties yourselves. That does keep costs down, but I wonder what those costs would be if you factored your value as a worker into it instead of just paying yourself zero for the work and counting the saved labor costs as profit.

I've gotten contradictory comments about using 5% as a growth target. Some say it's too low. Others say it's too high. Generally, there are people who think real estate will get inflation (so 2-4% or so) or less (due to values they think are too high currently), and there are people who think that housing supply is too low and that will continue to drive values higher, especially in smaller cities as work from home continues to drive people out of the VHCOL areas (especially if rates come down again in the next few years). Idk who's right. That's why I went with historical data over a long term time period :)

I’m 36 and have about $400K cash earmarked for REI. I live in California but am open to investing out of state (have looked into LA area, Atlanta & Detroit as I have connections there).

I’m open to any and all suggestions that will cash flow well & build equity/appreciation.

I don’t mind getting my hands dirty and am willing to allocate time as needed.

What would you advise for a new investor interested in getting into RE with this amount?

Long story short, my pops and I have been going back and forth as to whether I should invest in a rental property now or wait until after I purchase a home for myself and my wife.

A little bit about myself:

I live in NYC, where the average home price in my neighborhood is between $300K to $400K (for a 2 BR/1 BATH).

Without dipping into my brokerage account, I have about $70K for a down payment (from one of my HYSAs). If I were to dip into my brokerage account, I'd have over $100K. I currently work full-time, contribute the maximum to my 401(k) and Roth IRA, and regularly add to my brokerage account. I also maintain two high-yield savings accounts (HYSAs): one designated for a down payment (which has the $70K) and the other for emergency savings. On top of that, I give up to $500 to my wife per month to spend (she's a full-time student and doesn't make enough at her full-time job to pay for expenses outside of school tuition and her bills). My living expenses per month are relatively low — about $2.5K altogether. All that said, I still have an extra $700 for the month to spend on myself.

Given our situation, I would much rather prefer to build wealth now by investing in a rental property in Philadelphia and get the home that my wife and I want later down the line. My pops, however, would rather I put the money down for a property for ourselves and take advantage of the benefits for a first-time homebuyer. Given the current environment, he's also concerned that the interest rate for me could be higher if I were to invest in a property out of a state.

Any thoughts?

My business partner and I really want to get into real estate investing and the first step in our journey would be to buy a multi family home and house hack the property while living there. We have signed a BBA with an agent and are pre approved for $500k. We plan to go the FHA 3.5% route but everything we’re seeing isn’t meeting our criteria. No properties we’ve found in the past couple of months have had a decent positive cash flow and it feels like we’ve hit a stagnant point in our house hunting. Is the issue just the area (Phoenix, AZ and surrounding cities) or is the insanely high interest rates and housing prices? Is it even possible to positive cash flow in this market nowadays using a 3.5% FHA loan? Any advice or tips would be much appreciated.

Bought a townhome in 2020. 2.5% interest rate. My family has gotten bigger and we want to buy a larger home but don’t want to sell our townhome with the low interest rate. Do we use a HELOC and use the possible $80k from the HELOC to buy a new home? New home would probably have a $3000 home payment compared to our now $1700 home payment. So then we would have a townhome mortgage payment (hopefully paid by the future tenant) a HELOC payment, and a new home mortgage. Writing this out now, I think I must be crazy to have what looks like 3 mortgages. Any thoughts on how to get a bigger home while keeping my townhome’s interest rate?

My wife and I have an 18 month old, and are plannig to have another baby next year. We've never done this before, but have watched some youtube videos. Should we get a 650K beuatiful house in a less ideal location that needs no work at all, or 550K crappy one in a nice area and work on it to force appreciation? Are we too ambitious to DIY? 650K is getting close to the upper limit of how much we can afford.

We listed out what need to be renovated for the 550K home and our estimate of materials.

Main floor kitchen floor 200 sqft x 3.8 = 760

Whole second story floors 450 x 3.8 = 1710

All windows and window sills 8 windows = 5000
Basement walls smoothen 200

basement stairs redo 1000

Ventilation to attic 2000

Fix holes in plaster walls 100

seal door frames main floor 100

Kitchen vent 1000

Buy new electric stove 1500

Add kichen cabinets 1500

Stairs carpet 300

paint walls and rip out wall paper-whole house 300

higher railing 300

driveway paving 7000

screen door 150

Tools 1500

Edit: Thanks everyone for your responses! I guess for now we should buy a mediocre home with less projects in a neighborhood we like. Taking on this fix upper house is a bad idea lol.

So the title is kinda click baity, but its true. I came about $100k and right now I am about to graduate college and I am really considering buying a duplex and living in it whiling renting out the other half. I have zero knowledge about real estate or anything in that realm. If anyone could please recommend some tips, or some books that I could read, or even some useful knowledge, that would be much appreciated. Im trying to make the best out of my 20's by making smart financial decisions for my future.

How Fed Rate Cut today Dec. 18th will impact the Real Estate Market- what do you think? With lower market rates, would home buyer activity will increase? how the home prices are going to fair? I am not too sure if house supply has met the demand yet in 2024? Please advise.

I am 18 years old and I have a passion in making impacts in people’s lives. I also love having my own schedule and being my own boss in a sense. There’s a lot of jobs out there but a few of them have all the things I am looking for in a job and real estate sounds like the dream job.

Now, I am willing to work as hard as I can to become a successful realtor, that means learning from somebody, joining teams, etc.

I am currently unemployed but searching for a job to get started anywhere.

With all this information, I have a question.

How do I get started - Pros & Cons - Stories - Money - ……..

Any feedback or any reply would be great, thank you so much

I bought a house from a bank auction last year (the house is in Ohio). I paid my EMD and got my signed forms that I won the auction. The timeline for getting everything done and cleared through the court was 6-8 weeks. Its now 13 weeks and I can get any updates from the title company. each time I call they tell me someone will call back and my emails are just being bounced around to other team members. Is there anything that I can do?

Here's the home: https://gyazo.com/65a94af3a10ab1764139027d8c337ff0
Here's the specs:
Total cost: $140,000
1,500 SQ FT
Mortgage: $945, Insurance: $270, Property Tax: $80
No downpayment, seller is playing closing cost

Home is within walking distance from a highschool, and even though it's a trailer, it happens to be right smack in the middle of a subdivsion. I hate to skip on it, but seems like a steal

First time investor here! 👋🏾 I’m looking to acquire a property this year and wondered about DPA programs? How does it work? And how common is approval? I’m repairing my credit, so it’s not in the best standing. But I’m wanting to start my property management and landlord journey.

How could I get started with minimal out of pocket expenses? Any tips or suggestions?

I'm in the planning stages on a project that involves us purchasing a few unimproved acres (4-10). Like a lot of people, I'm hesitant to make a big purchase with the current economic instability. I have the flexibility to hold out a year or two on the land or I could buy next month.

Hey guys,

I was getting into and learn more about real estate investing. I was wondering where you guys source properties and find the signals to buy property?

I have around 500k usd given to me from inheritance. I want to go the real-estate route to grow it because I feel it safe I need a course to learn all the basics and terms