Apartment investment...?

I've done a little on the rental side. In my experience, I bought a condo that I lived in for a couple years while working which needed a little fixing up. If you buy it for yourself, the interest is much lower and banks are more willing to give you a mortgage.
After that couple years I started renting the condo out. By that time I had a fair mortgage interest rate.

If you buy a place as an investment property, most banks now give you a point or so higher on the mortgage. To give you an idea, my house is around 4.5% and my current rental property is around 6.5%

Also, you need some cash in the bank to take care of problems, and get to know a good plumber (unless you are qualified). And expect it to take alot of your time up, it isn't just a rent it then forget it for years while the cash pours in. At least in my case.

Other than that, start small. With one small condo or 1 bed apartment, you can work your way up and build equity. Renting is a smart thing to do for many folks that don't have the money yet, are paying off debt or aren't planning to stay in one place for more than 5 years.

Good luck.

Gambino said:

so when i buy my first place i should by it for myself which creates a smaller interest rate and then later rent it out, maybe in a few months. Im going to for sure take this to a note but still do alot of other research to learn the tricks. I will for sure start small because at the moment thats all i can afford. Hopefully the market is good and the equity will really support me and allow me to invest more. Thanks alot for the info.

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You would be committing mortgage fraud, so I'd advise against that.

From reading your posts, you are putting the cart before the horse. You need fundamental real estate education before you start looking for a deal.

My advice:

#1 Don't buy any courses from any gurus advertising on TV or that promise you will "get rich quick"

#2 Follow rule #1

#3 Find the top Real Estate MBA programs in the country, and find their curriculum online (most are posted). You should be able to find the textbooks they use. Buy the books (you'll have fundamentals, finance, operations, law, etc), and read them cover to cover.

#4 Read the books again

At this point, you should then start networking with investors doing deals in your local area. Get to know them, offer to intern for free and get some experience.

Without fundamental education or a lick of experience, you are just asking to lose/waste all your time and money.

To buy a home or condo, you need $$. Like they have said above, yours or someone else’s. Don't get to far ahead of yourself. Work on saving money for a down payment. Work your a** off and do what you have to do. Get a second job. You said you are studying for your ins. license, focus on that so you can get out and sell insurance and network that way. Build your credit! You're 18, do you have credit? If you don't, get a low limit credit card and spend a little each month and pay it off each month. Get a Best Buy card, or whatever you have up there, and buy a computer or something using the stores CC and their money at 0% for whatever term they offer. Talk to people you know who are homeowners, i.e. your parents, aunts, uncles, friends, friends of friends. I bought my first house at 22, I put 15k down, and my 30 yr. rate is 5.19%. This won't be an easy process. Focus on your insurance license and making as much money as possible now. Then when you get to the point where your income will support a mortgage, start researching all the fine details. I hope these suggestions give you a little more to think about. Good luck with your license test and make some money! Welcome to :l4p:

i second trying to learn as much as you possibly can... keep working (for 12 bucks an hour) and start trying to put away a certain amount into some type of high interest savings or low risk investment on a regular basis. dont touch that money but leave it there while you are doing your research into real estate. you need to know everything about your possible market; taxes (both property and income), insurance, repairs, and most importantly interest and rental rates in the area. obviously reasons that other people would want to rent from you, in that particular area are also very important factors to consider.

your final investment decision will have to come down to your cash flow so you need to rather reliably and accurately know the above details. once you know those add a little bit of extra leeway for any unknown expenses that may come up... they tend to be more than youre expecting.

obviously you will do a little costs minus expenses calculation to figure out what kind of compromise you will need to come up with between amount of a downpayment to bring the loan into an affordable territory and how much you can/will charge on rent.

if you plan on going to the bank to get a loan, there going to want to see this all written out very clearly and accurately, so take the time to make sure you figure everything out properly. you will probably find that youll need to save up for a couple of years... get a couple jobs at a time, work nights as a bar tender (somewhere busy preferably!) to get the downpayment youll need to be able to afford something. after youve done all the research, the second and third properties and so on would naturally get easier.

the internet has incredible amounts of information, start searching and see what you can find. general rule, if a site looks sketchy, its probably shinfo so stay away from it. also, anyone trying to sell you a course in real estate investment is robbing your money. it isnt particularly difficult, just take your time and plan it right.