investing from afar

[Ann Thomas]

I've been considering investing in some real estate. I'm not looking to flip. I'm looking to buy, rent for the extra cashflow, then eventually sell down the road when and if the price is right.

I'm also planning on moving across the country in about 2-3 years...perhaps even sooner, but I don't want to wait that long to start investing because it might not be a buyers market then.

So, I'm not sure if I should invest here now and then manage from afar after I move, or start investing there and manage from afar now. Since I'm new at this, I think I'd rather be close to the action at least for the first sale or two.

Anyway, from those of you that currently own and manage real estate...do you have any real estate that is more than a few hours away? Do you find it particularly challenging if you aren't in the same city? Or, particularly expensive to hire people in the area to deal with any day-to-day maintenance or tenant issues?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Don Konipol]

I think it's more important to be very familiar with a market than physically close to the market. I know the Texas market well. moved to Arizona and have had no trouble continuing to invest in Texas (I fly in every two months for about 5 days).