Better late than never!

[Manny Santacruz]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Manny, I am currently waiting to sign the contract to my first rental property and I'm beyond excited to start this journey. I'm brand new to the real estate investment world so in the mean time I've been trying to learn as much as I can and read as many books as I can cram into my busy schedule to try and get off to the right start. If anyone has any tips for us newbies, i would love to chat and get a better understanding from people who are more experienced.

Also, I work in sales for a plumbing supplier so I have many great connections to plumbers, HVAC techs, and other professionals who are experienced with doing jobs for real estate investors. I would love to recommend them if anyone needs a professional.

[Jordan Ray]

Quote from @Manny Santacruz:

Hi Everyone,

My name is Manny, I am currently waiting to sign the contract to my first rental property and I'm beyond excited to start this journey. I'm brand new to the real estate investment world so in the mean time I've been trying to learn as much as I can and read as many books as I can cram into my busy schedule to try and get off to the right start. If anyone has any tips for us newbies, i would love to chat and get a better understanding from people who are more experienced.

Also, I work in sales for a plumbing supplier so I have many great connections to plumbers, HVAC techs, and other professionals who are experienced with doing jobs for real estate investors. I would love to recommend them if anyone needs a professional.

Hey @Manny Santacruz! Welcome to BiggerPockets and congrats on locking in your first rental! That’s a huge step and exactly how the journey gets started. Sounds like you’re doing it right: learning, networking, and surrounding yourself with solid tradespeople (those connections will save you thousands over the years).

Since you’re just getting started, I’ll throw Memphis on your radar. It’s a market where investors can still find deals that hit the 1% rule and/or scale with the BRRRR strategy. The financing options here are investor-friendly too — hard money lenders often cover 100% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, so on average it’s only about $10K out of pocket per closing. That’s why so many out-of-state investors choose Memphis: you can build a portfolio much faster than tying all your cash up in one property.

If you ever want to see how the numbers shake out here in real Memphis deals, feel free to connect — I work with out-of-state investors all the time and can show you how they’re scaling quickly while keeping risk low. Best of luck investing and let me know if I can help out this way!