Need Guidance (Complete beginner)

Hi everybody,

I am a complete beginner looking into real estate investing and need some help.

To make a long story short, the apartment building in which I’m living in right now has been sold and I’m being evicted.

I live with my mom (on welfare) and little brother (too young for a job). I recently graduated college and working at an entry level position. We don’t have anywhere to go.

I’ve been doing research on real estate investing and learning about hard money and private money lenders that can help me in purchasing a house but I’ve never done this before and need guidance from somewhere.

Is anybody, with experience, willing to discuss this and help me figure it out?

Is it realistic to use a private money lender or hard money lender to buy a 2 family house and rent out the 2nd apartment to help me pay the lender back?

I have 30 days to figure something out or my family and I will be homeless.

I’m going to add the details since I posted this question on yahoo answers and everybody bashed me. Maybe I’m just being too ambitious, I don’t know. I need some one with knowledge to help me.

So heres the story:

I live in NYC in a family owned apartment. Because of this, my mother was able to live here while paying a rent that is way below the average in this neighborhood. My uncle who owned the building passed away and the building was sold by somebody on his wife’s side of the family. We’ve been here for 4 generations(great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and I) which makes this not only difficult financially but also emotionally. My mother has been disabled since I was 7 so she can’t work and due to this, we can’t afford anything else anywhere else in NYC where the rent for a studio is around $1500 (we live in a 3 bedroom apartment so imagine the rent for that!)

In regards to MY financial situation. I’m at a job where I make $35k a year (more like $25k after taxes). I started 2 years ago at $30k so I DO have 2 years of work experience. I also have a 753 credit score as I try to be very responsible with my money so I know that I can qualify for a loan. I just don’t know if it is worth it.

I eventually do want to get into real estate investing and I’ve been telling myself that it is better to not move out into an apartment and instead, save money for a house, but this current situation that I am in is confusing me. Should I try to use private money or hard money for a loan(I ask this and not a traditional loan since traditional loans take so long!) or should I move to a nearby state where rent is cheaper on an apartment?

In regards to the latter, the difficulties in that are that I do not have a car which will be needed. Up to this point, I’ve had no need for one since here in NYC everybody relies on public transportation (the MTA). This way I can still make it to work but cars are very expensive as well! I can forgo a car and use public transportation into NYC but that is also expensive as I will be paying public transportation into NYC as well as public transportation within NYC to get to my job.

I’m just so loss and need some kind of help, assistant, guidance, or advice. I’ve been taking an online real estate investing course but things always seem easier than they actually are in practice and I don;t know what else to do.

You’ve got only a few options. You can increase your income. You can move to a more affordable location. You can do your investing in a more affordable location. Ask yourself where you want to be in life in 5 years and make plans to be sure it happens.

Thanks Ken!

The problem with moving to a more affordable location is that I’ll be too far from work and then I’ll have no income coming in for a while. I’ll definitely think about my 5 year plan!

For sure, I agree with you Ken.