Investing with little time/experience

[Paige Harrison]

Hi everyone!

I am a single mom and physician in Baltimore, MD. I am eager to get into real estate investing, but keep getting stuck on how to start. I find that time is the biggest limiting factor. I also don't have any resources, or trusted contacts in the field. Ideally, I would like to have a rental property, and use a PM, so that I can be as hands-off as possible. I am also looking into syndications, but need to do a lot more research before jumping into that. 

I would love to invest in a rental property out-of-state, and have been looking at WV. What is the best way to find out of state contacts that you can trust? Would I just find a real estate agent to see the properties for me? Do I ever have to physically be there for any out-of-state deals? Is this even possible?  

Any help or resources is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much. 

[Alanna Wojciechowski]

Paige, congratulations on making the decision to start investing in real estate. A couple things...take these with a grain of salt as this is my own journey and everyone is different and not one real estate investment story is the same. 

-My husband and I lived in Baltimore, Federal Hill - in 2019 and 2020 (he played for the Orioles). So, folks from B-more are near and dear to my heart. Let's connect!
-You can gain a lot of passive income via real estate but as always (and I'm sure you know) - it's all about the long game. Set yourself up for success, 10-20+ years in the future through wise and calculated decisions now. 
-When I first got into residential real estate, I listened to every podcast I could (bigger pockets, cash flow connections, etc.) and read as many books as I could (investing in real estate, tax strategies, BRRRR, investing with no money down, etc) and dabbled a bit in single family and multi family. I quickly realized that in order to make passive income that matched a w2 in residential RE, you'd have to scale and take time to build quite a large portfolio with a fair amount of moving parts. All good to some who love it - but I wanted a few more 0's and commas without the hassle of capital expenditures and owner's operations. So, I turned to commercial real estate.
-Passivity and long term growth was important to me as well as diversification. I found that owning a few single family homes for short term (and one for long term) rental was enough for me on the residential (mind you, I also have a PM) side, but I wanted to see more consistent returns and have favorable timelines/exit strategies. 
-Syndications and funds will typically give you timelines and exit dates, passivity and diversification - bingo, hit the nail on the head for me. 

So, my suggestion would be to connect with fellow syndicators or those invested in funds or REITS - find some folks who you assimilate with and start making connections. The more specific you can be about what you're looking for, the easier it will be to find the right group or firm you want to invest with.

Also, my last suggestion - value liquidity right now. With the market ebbing and flowing, you don't want your capital locked up for long durations of time. 

Cheers!