I'm 35 years old and work for the Feds. I've been with them 11.5 years. It's an ok job, but I want higher earnings, and have always wanted to own rental properties since I was a kid.
Should I work on paying down my non-mortgage, non-student loan debt over the next 3 years? Or should I save up for a 20% down payment on my first small rental house somewhere outside Austin? I'm talking about something like a $60-80,000 house in a smaller town.
I'm looking for part time work to speed up either process. My regular job is Mon-Thur 5pm-3:30am. I have 3-day weekends, but I get pretty busy in the Fall with football on Fridays/Saturdays. I'm hoping to find something Mon-Fri during the day so it won't interfere with my regular job, and still get some sleep. It's tough.
I already rent out 2 of the rooms in my home. In January, one of those rooms should be free because I'm pushing one guy out. I guess an option would be to move everyone out and rent the house 100%, and try to get a small cash flow. But I have to live somewhere. I'd hate to throw money at renting my own place, but I don't have 20% to put down on a nice house closer to Austin.
I owe ~$130k on my house. I have some equity, maybe $12k, but I'm paying PMI currently because I bought this house with less than 5% down 4 years ago. Similar houses in my neighborhood are listing for $175-185,000 currently.