New Member in Las Vegas, NV

[Thomas Dowell]

Hi BP, I'm Thomas. I'm 26yo, currently living in Las Vegas working as a flight instructor and full time pilot. I've got very little applied real estate experience, but I'm very excited to get started. I've read most of the guru books over the last three or four years thanks to amazon. I'm just getting into real estate because I've finally got all my student debt under control and have a very manageable debt to income on my primary residence. I was born in NC but I've lived in a dozen or so states over the years. As my profile mentions, I'm an aspiring buy and hold investors; I'd like to cut my teeth in singles or small multis and eventually grow into the larger apartment complexes and potentially storage facilities. I have a group of similar aged and profession peers that are interested in investing with me, so I am not currently seeking money or marketing anything necessarily. I'm joining the blogs primarily in search of wisdom and maybe down the line use BP for deals. I originally heard about BP from the juststartrealestate.com podcast, so Mike Simmons, thanks, you've got a great podcast going. I also listen to the BP podcast, you guys are great.

I think one of my biggest barriers right now to investing is the lack of a smoking hot deal presenting itself; I know I'll get flamed for even saying this, but looking at the NW side of Vegas, the best possible rent/purchase price I'm finding is around 1% rather than the 2% ROT I've heard. I've considered starting with a multi, but most of the ones on the MLS and loopnet are around 10% cap rate which is doable, but again, not ideal. I would love to attend a REA meeting, but unfortunately I work most days between 12-16 hours and have other commitments when I'm not working for the man, so I'm hoping BP can be my REA.

[Tiger M.]

Welcome Thomas,

Your assessment is correct on the NW. Its just like weather though, wait a bit and it will change. I expect deals to reappear over the next couple months so stay actively watching. Short sale sellers are going to have more challenges as time goes on too. I just posted some of this on my blog yesterday, http://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/3472-tradewindvegas.

Let me know if you do flight reviews, I'm coming due and my old CFI is flying with Delta and too busy. You out of VGT or HND?