Investigating Properties

[Devon L.]

Hi All,

I had an extremely productive Friday and I wanted to share my experience with anyone else looking to invest away from home.

I live in NYC but decided that I want to invest in buy and hold properties in CT and PA for financial reasons (NYC is way overpriced). I took Friday off and drove 2 hours up to Northeast CT. With my laptop in the passenger seat I started looking up the addresses of properties I was interested in and touring the neighborhoods. I spoke with several contractors I saw working in the area to also get their perspective on the surrounding neighborhoods, etc. It just so happens one of the contractors I met `gave me some great insight to one of my potential properties because he worked on it the year before. In addition to this I scheduled an appointment with a local RE agent who has been working in the area for more than 30 years so he's well acquainted and can assist me on my journey. I made sure to ask him beforehand if he would be willing to take me on as a mentee, with respect to investing in real estate. He far exceeded my expectations. We spent about 3 hours in his office sharing stories (he had some amazing stories about his earlier days as an agent) and he walked me through their MLS showing me what rents were going for in certain areas. He understood that I wasn't from the immediate area and said he would contact the sellers' agents who he would likely have worked with before and ask them if there were any major "issues" I should know before I made the trip up again to look at the properties (potential properties). I hope I can continue to trust him but will tread cautiously. I have some questions that came up during my trip that I will post separately to get the expert's advice.

-Devon