After years of waiting I think that I am finally ready...

[Zack Crouse]

Greetings,

My name is Zack Crouse and I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. I currently live in Cape Coral, FL and work as a fire fighter / paramedic. I've been intrigued with real estate for as long as I can remember but was never in the position to get started, or simply did not know how. I feel like I am in the right position in life to start with my first rental. I am looking to do the BRRRR method and have all of my rentals in the Pittsburgh area. I plan on retiring from the fire department in 6 years and moving my family back to Pittsburgh. My goal is to have 10 rentals by the time we move. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Anthony Angotti]

@Zack Crouse

Welcome and Pittsburgh is a great place to live and invest. I will say that you'll be moving from sunshine to perpetual overcastness (word/notaword? Who cares.) though! 

BRRRR will be a lot easier when you live here and can go the sweat equity route. As a remote investor, and especially as a newbie, you're going to find this market tough to execute that plan. Everything costs so more when you aren't here. Even if you aren't the one doing the work it's still going to be harder to shop around for contractors, manage the jobs, etc.

My general advice to people just starting out is to remove as much complication as possible from your first deal to start learning. Buy a property in decent condition, do some spit and polish upgrades (paint, flooring, etc.), hire and vet a Prop Manager, and use a regular 30 year mortgage to buy a property on market. 

You won't do this forever, but if you buy a property that way it will be the most straight forward way for you to learn the basics of investing in real estate without all the complicated moving parts. Will is be a home run? No. Will it wreck you financially, less likely than trying to use a hard money loan to buy a place with no cash and a $50,000 rehab budget in a C class neighborhood. 

Just my two cents from investing over the past decade and working with local and out of state investors as an agent.