Just getting started

[Char Dickinson]

Hi my name is Char, we currently are living in Idaho. We are just trying to find our path in real estate. Idaho is not a good place to buy homes. My boyfriend and I are wondering which state/city would be the most profitable for us to either BRRR and house hacking? We're looking to do single or multi family brrr or house hacking?

[Don Spafford]

@Char Dickinson Welcome to BP! Good to see you are getting started. Everybody starts somewhere. I have to ask, when you say, "Idaho is not a good place to buy homes" are you referring to as a place to live or for a place to invest? Which market are you looking. It is hard to discount the entire state if maybe you just can't find something in Boise for example. There are opportunities in every market if you can find the way to best take advantage of it. You can probably make a house hack work in Boise. And if you can do it there, you can do it in any market here. The difficult part is getting the property with so many competing offers. But if you can get it, there are possibilities. But at the same time, there are other markets which may work. But, keep in mind, what "works" on paper may not necessarily be actual results. I have a four plex in Idaho and I have two in Arkansas. The two I bought in Arkansas were together about the same price as the one in Idaho for similar rents. So it would seem those properties would cash flow great. Well, the tenant base makes a difference as well. In Idaho I have had 0 evictions, all my tenants pay on time at the beginning of the month, rarely do I have problems to take care of. In AR, people pay when they can, lots more maintenance, more evictions (or no payers since we can't evict now) so the overall returns are actually less than the more expensive ID property. And the ID property has almost doubled in value from appreciation while the others are basically stagnant. So something to keep in mind that cheap properties do not translate to more cash flow. If you can find something within an hour drive that you can self manage, you will probably be better off. I manage my own here and it is 45 min away.