A single-family home is a great place to start; since most of us have lived in or currently live in this type of property, it makes for a very familiar kind of investment. Right now, single-family homes here in the Upstate present a great opportunity. We’re talking with a lot of people who bought a home five, six, or seven years ago and have seen its value rise significantly. Their strong equity positions have opened up a world of possibilities.
In fact, tapping into your equity is a great way to buy your first investment. That first property doesn’t have to be complicated; we can walk you through the process and provide some amazing tools to empower you as an investor.
Targeting fixer-uppers and getting your hands a little dirty is a great way to build instant equity, but by no means is that your only option.
Start small by finding a home that’s somewhere around $150,000. The actual cash you’d need to close on a home like that is a few thousand dollars (again, if you don’t have that type of money lying around in a savings account, explore a home equity line of credit). We have a detailed spreadsheet we’ll share with you for analyzing rents—just plug in four or five numbers and you’ll see exactly what your return on investment would be and how a given property could help you build wealth over a certain number of years.
Targeting fixer-uppers and getting your hands a little dirty is a great way to build instant equity, but by no means is that your only option; if you’re not necessarily a handy person, you can still make a great investment using what we call ‘the buy box.’ This method challenges you to clearly outline your buying criteria as a new investor. For example, is your buy box a four-bedroom, single-family home from $120,000 to $150,000 in that cozy district of town you like?
Do yourself a favor now by grabbing a great property and having a renter pay the mortgage; do your future self a favor by preparing a phenomenal equity position for them. If you’re interested in becoming an investor, please feel free to reach out to us by phone or email. We’d love the opportunity to discuss some of the finer points of buying investment properties with you.
