Mililani, HI · Member since 2016 · 17 posts · 5 votes
Hello BP family I am new at real estate investing and I need some help. I Currently live in Hawaii where the housing market as most of you know is pretty high. I am looking to invest in SFH out of State but I don't know where to start looking and how to go about looking for the right places to invest in. I hear through word of mouth and podcasts of places where people are having great returns on their investments for example I heard Atlanta Georgia, Jacksonville Florida and couple others but Im not quite sure what makes them great areas to invest in. I guess my question would be when I do my homework on where to invest what are some key things to look for on a more macro level? How can I get a better picture of the whole if Ive never seen or been there?
Hmmmm . . . sites for reliable, free information on real estate investing?
Dude! You're on the 800 pound gorilla! Before Josh Dorkin started BP, there was nothing, except for biased marketing squeeze pages from "gurus" trying to sell you their so-called "turn-key rentals" or over-priced "coaching packages" or seminars and boot-camps! Now, if you have a question about REI, this is the site!!!! Search any term like in the upper right and you will find enough reading/listening material to last a month.
A bit of advice from one haole guy: Try to imagine buying a rental or two in Hilo, where properties are a bit cheaper and renters are common, but not 100% reliable. (No offense to any folks in Hilo). Then, imagine trying to renovate, manage, and maintain properties 3,000 miles further than the Big Island. Yikes!
Instead, there have been some great BP podcasts and threads in the forums about new investors adding great value to seasoned investors by finding motivated sellers or managing small renovation projects or even answering phones. If you can cut your teeth by hooking up with some local Oahu investors, you can make some cash, learn a ton, and probably find a deal or two near you. One thing that works great in Hawaii is house-hacking! On Maui I used 3 different SFRs as Multi-unit dwellings. I would live in the Ohana units and rent out the bulk of the homes for some good money. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
Alex, good question. Read the daily paper for what ever city you are looking at. Check out state demographics, housing & emplyment numbers. Who is the largest employer in the area? And my number one piece of advice on out of state investing, enjoy going to that particular city. Where ever it is. A city on the west side of the nation and very enjoyable is Salt Lake City, UT. It has many things going for it, and is a joy to visit. Good luck !
I m brand new as well, and it's like you were reading my mind! I'm in Massachusetts, but looking to invest down south most likely Georgia since there are many SFH homes at very low cost with much higher comps in their area. It looks great, but I'm scared to take the first leap without knowing much about out of state investing. Good luck on your search!
I am an investor in GA and willing to answer questions if you can be specific. Let us know the area of town you are thinking about, the price range, and what kind of returns you are looking to achieve. A local real estate agent would be a good resource to connect with since you are out of the area. Especially one who specializes in assisting investors.
I've been a long distance landlord before as well. I was living in GA with a property in Texas. Long distance comes with a very unique set of challenges. The most important item in my opinion is a manager you can trust. I have horror stories of the four property managers I went through. They cost me a fortune with one property manager going as far as to remove items from the house for herself and blaming the tenants.
You need to solicit the advice of an experience real estate agent who specializes in investment properties. I've sold over $10M in investment properties in the last 12 months and would love to show you why so many investors are bringing their money to Utah from other states. I just helped a great family from Hawaii buy a home here! Message me if I can help.
I've had luck in Mililani so far, I have one in Waikalani that cashflows 500 a month. Moving on to a second in Wahiawa pretty soon here. I feel you though, It's really tough especially trying to get a good margin without paying an arm and a leg in HOA fees. Best of luck to you
@Joe Facenda Hi, can you tell me more about your site. I would like to see GA represented! You can contact me by email or phone. I hope to hear from you soon!
I higjly resomend Juan Jackson. He is an investor and a realtor. He has first hand experience with rehab too. Oh ya did I mention he does property management too. Real life Superman who you can rely on from out of state.
If you pick Georgia like I did, then Juan is your guy!
Hi Alex,
Welcome to the BP community... there is certainly a significant amount of information already posted in the blogs about what to look for when investing out of state.
To summarize some of my favorite tips:
Subscribe to the local business journal or news to see what is happening in terms of new businesses or investments in the area.
Check out the rent to price ratio, and how many people rent versus own.
Check out information on a tool like neighborhoodscout.com to find out aggregated information about a region.
I think there is a lot you can learn about areas these days without physically visiting. However, before you really do pull the trigger on purchasing, it is in your best interest to spend some money actually visiting a location and seeing actual property. Plus, I know I have gained so much from just speaking face to face with a provider.
Good luck!
If I were you, I would make friends with @Jeremy Blackowl and see if you can make something work close to home! Oahu is pricey but there are opportunities everywhere if you look hard enough.
I moved to Utah from Maui in 2004 and still had one lease-option there in Pukalani. Bad stuff happened! Luckily, appreciation worked everything out in my favor, but long-distance rentals can be really tough. I just finished a flip in the San Diego area but I try to keep my rentals close to home. My farthest rental properties are 3.5 hours away and they have been troublesome because of maintenance and management.
The investors I know that have had good success out of state have large apartment buildings with trusted, on-site management or they have at least a dozen SFRs with a proven management company. If you only have one or two houses, the management company only sees you as a very small income stream. With many properties, your business buys more service and loyalty.
Hmmm. I know if it were me, I'd have no idea where to even start looking for some of the things people are mentioning. I wouldn't even know what some of them were actually. SO, my suggestion is to talk to people who are investing in markets outside of their own and ask what they look for in a market, and how they get the info.
For me (I live in LA, so same situation as Hawaii and I buy elsewhere), is a look for good price-to-rent ratios which compare the price of a property to how much rent it can bring in to tell me whether I'm going to cash flow or not and I want a growing market.
I know it's probably still a little vague as far as then how to find that information on markets, but start there to get you going. Reach out with any questions afterwards! Happy to chat.
Hmmmm . . . sites for reliable, free information on real estate investing?
Dude! You're on the 800 pound gorilla! Before Josh Dorkin started BP, there was nothing, except for biased marketing squeeze pages from "gurus" trying to sell you their so-called "turn-key rentals" or over-priced "coaching packages" or seminars and boot-camps! Now, if you have a question about REI, this is the site!!!! Search any term like in the upper right and you will find enough reading/listening material to last a month.
A bit of advice from one haole guy: Try to imagine buying a rental or two in Hilo, where properties are a bit cheaper and renters are common, but not 100% reliable. (No offense to any folks in Hilo). Then, imagine trying to renovate, manage, and maintain properties 3,000 miles further than the Big Island. Yikes!
Instead, there have been some great BP podcasts and threads in the forums about new investors adding great value to seasoned investors by finding motivated sellers or managing small renovation projects or even answering phones. If you can cut your teeth by hooking up with some local Oahu investors, you can make some cash, learn a ton, and probably find a deal or two near you. One thing that works great in Hawaii is house-hacking! On Maui I used 3 different SFRs as Multi-unit dwellings. I would live in the Ohana units and rent out the bulk of the homes for some good money. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
I totally agree with Douglas Larson. As for me BP is "The Best" site I've come across, were you have basically all you need if you are a seasoned investor or newbie, hands down. I've attended numerous boot camps, mentoring classes and so forth, that never came close to what BP provides. As Douglas said earlier, you, myself and all of the BP'ers that signed up to the site, were all riding on this 800 pound gorilla, and we all should take full advantage of the opportunity. Good luck and great investing! Aloha
If you're looking for free information besides bp I highly recommend networking at local events. Rei meetups, cashflow events, Meetup.com, etc. since your live on oahu if you message me I can let you know where I go to meet other investors as well.
HI, I own a property almost 2 hours away in a different state. We were familiar with the area prior to purchase as it was a favorite vacation spot for us. Long distance investing is a bit like a long distance relationship. IT DOES NOT WORK WELL. Trying to manage from long distance is not only harder, it is stacked against you. The locals often stick together, if you need to hire a plumber, count on the bill being twice as much as it could have been. because you have no idea what they did. And that is if you are able to find good tenants--also much more likely do go badly, or you need to pay a local $200/month to 'manage' it for you.. there goes your profits. My advice, wait until you can afford a local purchase... even a condo. Especially if you are new to the property game!
I'm going to go against the grain and say forget about the macro level and focus on the micro level. What markets are you already familiar with? What markets do you already have or can more easily establish a network of good, reliable "boots on the ground"? What markets do you already have an advantage? What markets are you able to look house by house, block by block, and see first hand, at a micro level the effects of macro economics (both good and bad) well before they show up in any of the statistics? What markets do you already have a feel for or can more easily develop a feel for what a good deal looks like? What markets are you familiar enough with to know before buying what sort of tenants you are going to get for a particular property and if that matches your (or your PMs) management abilities and investment goals? Those are the things that are most likely to make or break your investments so those are the markets I'd focus on, and I would NOT pull the trigger on any investment property in any market until you have solid answers to the questions above. Without these answers, you are just guessing based on somebody else's advice and/or macro economic data, and that IMO is not a sound investment strategy for your hard earned money.
I had rentals in an area where I used to live. We moved 500 miles away. We got rid of them. Remote wasn't worth it for us. And we were familiar with the area we came from. If you don't know your area, definitely don't do remote. Try saving up a little more and do it locally.
There is some fabulous insight and advice on this thread!! Not the least of which is meant to discourage you from considering LD investing on a small scale.
Another possible consideration is to look at investing passively. If you can align yourself with an excellent sponsor (ask for references), you may be able to achieve your RE objectives while riding on the back of someone who is already doing it in the markets in which you have interest.
Also, if this sounds intriguing, ask the sponsor to provide you with examples of deals they have done...with an eye toward seeing what they originally projected vs their actual performance. There are two ways sponsors raise capital---first, is to promise the moon to obtain funding...'splaining all the reasons they were unable to hit their numbers---or, by those who under promise with conservative projections...with the news being to the upside. I prefer the latter!
Thank you everyone for all the awesome advice and insight. I am truly apprecative for all the responses and will take all the advice into consideration in all my future investments