Real Estate Investing for the Unsettled

[Jacob Derksen]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Jake Derksen and I recently graduated with a master's degree in environmental science from Oregon State University and the job hunt has been taking longer than anticipated. I am not sure where I will end up but there is a high chance I will be starting my professional life out of state or even out of the country. 

Does anyone have advice for a prospective real estate investor that has not figured out where home is yet? Where to buy?  How to Analyse a property from afar? How to pick a neighborhood? Just to name a few of the questions running through my mind.

Any thoughts from a seasoned investor or newbie going through a similar situation would be very much appreciated.
Thanks!

[Neal Collins]

Hey Jake. Great questions and welcome to the forums. I was talking with a mentor and long time successful investor this morning who said something that stuck with me. He said now is a time to be "aggressively patient."

Times are certainly changing with the economic reality we are facing. It's hard to graduate into a recession, I have been there.

Being young and mobile with no commitments it may be easiest to relocate to a market that you could at least have the options of purchasing your own home. Figuring out where to live, what you'll be doing professionally, and then trying to throw in long distance real estate investing may be an uphill challenge.

The ability to get in the trenches of a local market during times like these to be able to see where value is going, stay abreast of political changes, news, developments, business closings/openings, etc, is in my opinion very helpful.