Hi, I'm looking for book recommendations on mortgages / financing your first real estate deal. Any recommendations? Let me know if you have any general book recs for first time homeowners. Thank you!

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Background info: I've read a number of the Bigger Pockets books, browsed blogs, and talked with local investors. I want to expand my horizon to see if others have found success with a particular resource. I'm hoping that this can be a thread where we share resources.

Run the numbers and if they work for you then buy it and learn from doing. Action is the greatest teacher. Or do you have something specific you want to know? I bought my first house and what I did was get preapproved from a mortgage broker so I know how much they would lend me. I then shopped around for the best rate and lending costs. I found a house I liked and made an offer. An important factor is knowing if you can afford the monthly payments and the upkeep of your house, I was more conservative and didn’t use the full lending amount the broker was willing to lend me.

Ok, let me try to take another stab at this. I also look at bigger pockets and various podcasts and YouTube videos to get some good information. Most people will either look at positive monthly cash flow or appreciation of the property or a combination of both. Personally I invest in a small town where I am from so what I look for when I run the numbers is positive cash flow each month since there isn’t much appreciation. There are plenty of spreadsheets out there and I have one I can share but it’s pretty standard. I look for deals on the MLS and from my real estate agent, I do 25% down because it’s an investment property and I find a lender online. I have a property manager. Having invested myself I think there is enough information on YouTube and the next step is to just buy a property. Obstacles I’ve come across is not factoring 5% to annual maintenance and 5% for capital expenditures, property managers can be shady but I still need them, have good bookkeeping.

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