Currently my wife and i are saving to buy a house of our own and wanting to close in June of 2012. Shortly after that we want to start investing in Oct of that same year. By then we will have saved around $15,000. Is this enough to buy a good investment property or do I need to save more? We might need to borrow just a little for repairs but really do not want to. We do have good credit.
Depending on where you are, you could buy a 2-4 unit property with an FHA loan and live in one of the units. In my opinion, this is a good way to get into investing. Just don’t overpay for the property. Analyze it the way you would any investment. Doing this will put you in a better position to invest than if you purchased a single family for yourself first.
JP
OK. I answered this post in another thread, but here’s some more. Most banks are going to want 25-30% down on an investment property. So you could probably look at places you could buy for around 40-50k or so. Getting started is hard. Once you’re established, it gets much easier to acquire more property. This business isn’t for everyone and you’re going to have to show the bank you can be successful with it before they’ll really do too much for you.