Rental Property Investor · Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2020 · 26 posts · 19 votes
Hi everyone!
A couple episodes ago on the BP podcast Brandon talked about fear being the culprit behind people not making any money... because it stops them from taking action. That got to me. So I'm here to get out of my comfort zone…
I'm a 26 year old electrical engineer based in Southern California. . . planning on closing on my first property sometime in early to mid 2021 and I've zeroed in on Birmingham or Huntsville, Alabama. I would like to do BRRR eventually, BUT thinking a pure rental property would be good enough to start off with.
Ultimately, I plan on doing a weekend trip, or trips, to explore the cities and neighborhoods (Once things settle down of course!). As well as to meet possible team members.
In the meantime, I would love to start building a close network of local people in those areas, or other OOS investors investing there, who wouldn't mind connecting and sharing some of their knowledge and/or experience. In return, if any of you need any help with something down in the LA area, be sure to reach out!
You have the right idea looking OOS. Living in Portland, the properties aren't as high as you but still up there. The cash on cash returns is just not feasible.
I purchased a turnkey rental through Rent to Retirement and it's been a great experience. For my first deal, I wanted something low risk, affordable, and with good returns. Getting that first deal instantly put me into the investor mindset.
@Zach Lemaster and his team have property in Alabama that I think you'd be really interested in. Check out their Alabama inventory on their website.
renttoretirement.com
I'm happy to elaborate or answer any questions if you want to pm me.
I live in Southern California and have invested in the Huntsville, AL market. It has worked out great for me! Please reach out to me and I can share you all my contacts if interested.
@Raul Carrillo It's entirely possible to start investing out of state even with your first property. It will take some hustle though. Have you put together your investing plan and down your market research? Make sure to do this prior to traveling to an area and putting together a team. Stack as many of those investing cards in your favor as possible! PM me with Qs! I've done over 30+ deals out of state through my teams.
@Whitney Hutten Oh for sure. Yeah I started planning a couple months ago, made an excel sheet of 12 potential locations until finally zooming in on Northern Alabama. Now I'm in listing email lists in both Huntsville and Birmingham. Awesome, thanks!
I'm a 37 year old electrical engineer Huntsville native. I got into REI only about 2 year ago. I invested locally... like all within 15 minutes away, because that felt comfortable to me. I personally like being close to my properties. At this point I might consider out of state, but only because I've done a few properties and have an idea what goes into it.
"Building your team" is a slow process. You don't have to find an army of people, just find a single agent in the area you interested in.
I went turnkey for the most part, meaning, homes that don't need any major renovations. If you are 27 and don't have kids, you could probably have more time to spend fixing up a property. But, I went went from 0 experience to 4 properties and a partner on a small commercial complex in just two years. And about appreciation, there's been a huge bump just in the last year. I don't know if that will continue or not, but the city is growing rapidly and will outpace Birmingham.