Newbie Moving to Rural New Hampshire

Newbie Moving to Rural New Hampshire

Plymouth, NH · Member since 2017 · 13 posts · 2 votes
Hello BiggerPockets, I am new to joining the forums but have been listening to the podcasts for a few months (over halfway through them so far). My real estate story thus far is short: I bought a fix and live-in single family home, my wife and I fixed it up during my [physician] residency training, we sold it for a profit, and now we are closing on a new home where I will be working post-training. I will admit that most of the profit in selling our first home​ came from our neighborhood in Rochester, New York going up in value, but I do think we added some value to the home as well. Our new home is in New Hampshire and has an "accessory dwelling unit" / in law suite, which we plan on renting, especially since NH law is making it easier to rent accessory dwelling units (RSA 674:71 through RSA 674:73). I view this as a light version of house hacking. I am moving to the Plymouth, NH market. For those less familiar with NH: Plymouth is a small college town near the geographic center of NH, but it is well north of the so-called "central New Hampshire" region where most of the larger population centers are in the state. Instead, Plymouth is in the rural "lakes region" or "mountains region," depending on your cut offs. From what I can tell, downtown Plymouth is currently saturated with college rental investment companies. But I am hopeful that the rest of Plymouth and/or surrounding rural towns will have property opportunities that I can buy and hold for renting to people who live longer term in the area (people who work at the University, hospital, etc). I plan on building a profitable portfolio that will eventually serve as my retirement income. I always get inspired hearing about the BRRRR method and subject to as means of getting into more properties without constantly needing to raise another 20-25 % down from personal funds, but obviously I do not have experience in either of these yet. If​ anyone happens to be familiar with my relatively small market region or if anyone has good ideas on how to be successful with real estate investing in rural New England / rural USA I would love to hear from you. I hope everyone has a nice and productive day.
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  • Investor · Campton, NH · Member since 2010 · 284 posts · 142 votes
    9y

    Oliver call me now - I'm in Plymouth too, we should connect! Six o three 726 0221  :)

  • Rental Property Investor · Rochester, NH · Member since 2016 · 116 posts · 27 votes
    9y

    Welcome to the 'Shire!

    Find your niche where you can add value. You will do well!

  • Investor · Stratham, NH · Member since 2015 · 43 posts · 16 votes
    9y

    @Oliver Salmon

    Welcome Oliver.  Based on your location, you might also want to check out the vacation rental market.  You are close to several popular ski area's that have a large draw from the Boston market.  I have had some success in the North Conway area with vacation rentals.

  • Plymouth, NH · Member since 2017 · 13 posts · 2 votes
    9y

    Thanks for all of the replies.  I will look for those missing values that I can fill.  I have always been a little scared of vacation rentals, fearing that in every economic downturn people to stop vacationing and my cash flow will end for the next year or two.  But, I imagine that there are always a few of the "right" vacation rentals that always get filled.

    What qualities have you found, @John McRae, in North Conway vacation properties that still rent out in bad economic times like 2008?

  • Investor · Stratham, NH · Member since 2015 · 43 posts · 16 votes
    9y

    While the property values in vacation condos did get clobbered in the downturn, the cashflow remained the same.  People still want to get away for the weekends to ski, hike, Storyland, etc.  And you could probably make the argument that during tough times, people will scale back and take "smaller, or more local" vacations, than say a trip out West skiing.  

    That being said, vacation rentals do pose other challenges and are definitely less passive. Turning units over, laundry, furniture, HOA fees for condo, etc. I only have the one vacation property up north and rest of my investments are in southern NH.

  • Plymouth, NH · Member since 2017 · 13 posts · 2 votes
    9y

    Now that you own a condo, would you recommend vacation homes that are independent or a condo? I can see the benefit with keeping it relatively passive via a condo association as you imply, I just know that some people seem to have strong opinions on HOA fees and rules after condo ownership.

    It is nice to hear that you still found cash flow despite property values dropping.  And I guess if the pessimists are right and a downturn is eminent then there may be another opportunity to buy some vacation rentals on sale again soon?

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