Possible deals in Columbus, OH
Hi all. I posted a thread several months ago about selling my house in Alabama and moving to Ohio for a two year assignment. I got alot of good advice at that time about what to do with the equity from my home sale, etc.. Well, now we're in Ohio and everything is going fine. I am renting a house and have banked the equity (~$65k) from my house sale in Alabama. My original plan was to just put that money in a mutual fund and let it make a little money until we're ready to go back to Alabama where I would use it for the down payment on a lake house.
A colleague at work has discussed some of his rental properties and another one has come up that he doesn't want to use any more of his 401k to fund so he told me about it. It's very similar to his other 2 properties that he's making money on but I can't seem to make the numbers work on it. If I could work it out, I would think about investing my equity in a rental property instead of having it sit in the bank and this would, hopefully, get my REI career started.
So, what I'd like to get advice on is whether I should bite the bullet now and try to find a different (good) property in Columbus and get started with my equity money or not. I can't think of another time when I'll have this money available. But, if I do this, I'll be using the money that I need to use as a down payment when I go back to Alabama. I know that I can use a much smaller down payment on my primary residence when I go back (5% I think) so that might be helpful.
Are there any investors in the Columbus area that could give me advice on the rental market here? Maybe outside of Dublin where the houses and the property taxes are very expensive? There are several things that I am stuck on:
- Should I go for a smaller, cheaper house in a less than stellar neighborhood or go with a nicer house in a good neighborhood that's also in a very good school district?
- Do you always have to put 20-25% down on a rental home mortgage?
- What about property management? I think I can do the property management now until I go back to Alabama but what about after that? I have big concerns about living in Alabama and having a rental house in Ohio but I know the market is good here so it's attractive.
- When I move back, are there any additional expenses for being an out of state investor (taxes, insurance, etc...)?
I'm really ready to do this but I haven't been able to pull the trigger yet. It's like I just need someone to tell me that I can do it and tell me where to start but I know it's not that easy.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks