[USER]

What is the best way for me to get into real estate investing? I am 30 and own my home.

It is worth about 660K and I owe about $390k on it with a 3.125 interest rate.

I have about $20k in savings. Both my husband and I work full time and have 2 kids in daycare.

We are saving about $3k a month.

Do we really need to wait to save about $50-100k to invest in a relatively cheap property?

Or what else can I do?

[Yujin]

You could look at REITs as a way of getting exposure to real estate. You can also just spend this time learning more about investing in real estate before you actually go buy.

Have you tried doing mock purchases and analyzing them?

[Prasith]

Yes you can. But if you don’t have too much capital to invest, you can try few things,
1) buy a single family or a townhome (300-350k) that will cash flow after paying mortgage.

Mortgage rates are going to be (investments generally +1.2%) higher than normal.

2) invest in mutual/index funds/etf (lump sum/DCA) for long term >5 years.

Real estate has become very expensive just not able to break even.

Never get into a point where you will be paying out of pocket and loose money. Not tax savings either.

[Raul]

Look for alternative investments, another FHA or low down payment option, you can do multigamly property with 3.5 or 5% down.

You can also look for great deals and find partners.

Real Estate is not the stock market where you invest and wait for the return, you need to put in some work and creativity but you can make 10x what you’d make in the stock market

[Bethany]

Build spreadsheets to calculate your ROI on real estate versus other investments.

Yes, you actually do need MORE down on an investment property (20-25 percent generally) unless you can arrange seller financing or something special.

You will also be paying a higher interest rate than you would on your primary.

I like my rental, but my ROI is much better in stocks, honestly.

And real estate is very illiquid.

If you want exposure to real estate in a more liquid form, look into dividend-paying REITs.

[Author]

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