<p>As an engineer, i know it may be hard to get rich with engineering.</p>
<p>Is anyone planning on buying a house ASAP and using real estate as a means to get rich? </p>
<p>Discuss</p>
<p>Say you make 60k starting salary, save 10k first year, 10k second year. Down payment of 20k, 10% on a 200,000 house/condo, and work from there?</p>
<p>It depends on where you live, of course, but this is a formula we followed. </p>
<p>We started out buying a duplex and renting one side for over half of the payment. We could do most of the cosmetic work ourselves and built equity with minor improvements. We then bought a single family home and kept the duplex. We sold the single family home and used part of the equity to buy a commercial building to house our business and rented about 65% to tenants. The rest of the equity we used to buy a 4 family home in a a nice neighborhood. The apartments are all sort of connected so we have shifted which apartments we live in depending on the needs of our family. Presently, we keep one apartment for our college-aged daughters and their storage needs and rent 2 apts to graduate students. Their rent pays over half of our present mortgage.
I wouldn't suggest waiting 2 years to start investing in real estate. Look carefully at the up and coming neighborhoods and get in earlier rather than later. Check into development zones in your city where you might be able to purchase with a lower down payment and interest rate. Talk to a few professionals who know your market.</p>
<p>Well i don't know about rich but I know someone who after college just lived with their parents for two years and saved money to purchase their home instead of wasting away money on rent.</p>
<p>Personally i think 2cakes is lying. Secondly that is not a formula. Real Estate is revolves around a fairly regular cycle with outside influences coming from inflation, the fed, passive income growth, job growth etc etc. There is no formula, it is best explained as a calculated bet.</p>
<p>To get rich, live below your means and save money. Be sure to diversify your investments because many markets are cyclical, including real estate. There are tax advantages to owning your own home with a mortgage, but you should be cautious about leveraging yourself too much there. You will be surprised at how expensive home maintenance is. People often don't factor in maintenance, tax and insurance increases, etc. And if you purchase a rental property, one bad tenant or market downturn can make your life a misery if you are very leveraged and not diversified.</p>