Advice appreciated in Medford, Or!

[Heidi Wills]

Hi! I'm Heidi and I've had a little experience buying and selling real estate as my primary residence but I'm really excited to start investing in a sf or small multi family property for rental income and house hacking. I travel t/o the states for work and I'm interested in investing either in Northeast Wyoming, upper Michigan or Denver. I'm planning to use a property manager since I'll be an out of state investor. I'm trying to learn as much as I can about private lenders and calculating return on investments and im a little confused by the calculator on BP and could use some guidance. Outside of going to local REI meetings here in Medford (I'll be here for the next couple months), I'd love to toss ideas around with someone experienced in investing in those types of markets. Thanks!

[James Carlson]

Hi @Heidi Wills. Sounds like you're in a good position. As an aside to those questions, I'd throw this idea out there. Because you don't have a primary residence elsewhere, you could establish whatever place you buy as a primary residence, which would likely allow you to Airbnb (or short-term rent) your place while you're on assignment. It's a little more up-front work to get an STR-specific property manager, but the returns are great. (And it being your primary residence gets around a lot of local restrictions on Airbnb.)

The markets you're interested in vary widely, so you might try to nail down what your goal is in buying this property. Is it purely an investment? If so, are you looking for immediate cash-flow or more long-term appreciation? If it's not a pure investment, and you might want to live there between assignments, what kind of quality of life are you interested in? 

Good luck!