And then there was light...

[Will Stahl]

This is my first post on Bigger Pockets and I hope there's many more to come. My name is Will and I'm 24 years old living in Westchester, NY. I graduated college 2 years ago and have been working as a business analyst. I consider myself lucky because the job pays well. But the idea of doing this or anything which involves me sitting in a windowless box for the next 40 years sounds awful-terrible-miserable. I'm not sure which term describes it best. I know too many people who've do that their whole lives and have little to show for it. I've been reading and listening a lot over the past month and it really has opened up my mind. I've realized that the game can be played in a different way. Getting out of the rat race seems possible without putting in 40+ years of work. Let me give you an idea of where I'm at so far.

First off, I think its important to start off with my financial upbringing. I was taught from a very young agethat you want to get a good job with a strong company, work your way up the ladder, save money into your 401K. Extra money gets invested into stocks. Most importantly, avoid occurring debt all cost! ('Good' advice, but advice that leads you to get stuck)

BP has really opened my mind. I'm open to the idea of investing in real estate and am excited to learn about it. Given New York is so expensive, I'm looking into investing out of state. Specifically, Single Family Homes In cheap states with the intention of renting them out to generate cash flow and increased equity in the property. However, there are a few questions that are weighing on my newly-born real estate mind that I hope I can get some thoughts from the community. Investing out of state in real estate has many obstacles that i'm afraid will prevent me from jumping in. Please help get me going.

1. How do people buy out of state? I work and live in New York. I get 2 Weeks of vacation from work. How can I manage to buy a house, have a contractor perform the needed work on it, and rent it to responsible tenants while being in New York for 50 weeks and the place of the rental for only 2 Weeks?
2. Will a Real Estate Agent Work with me even if I'm out of state? How do we go about searching for properties? I'm assuming only the agent has MLS access and I need to rely on them? 
3. How do I go about finding a contractor (Who wont scam me) when I'm so far away? If I did find one, I wouldn't be there for when the work is being done (Or not all of it probably).
4. How do I go about getting the place rented?
5. I'm thinking about putting 20K into my first property. Including the down payment and repairs. I'm looking to spend 85K max. For this price range what advice/strategy do you have to give?
6. Random question, is there a way people go about finding out what areas are good/bad (Crime/Schools)?

Thanks already everyone. I'm looking forward to what is ahead. I really want to press. I think my next step is to start crunching some numbers to get good at finding deals. Practice makes perfect. I'll be sure to keep posting. 

[Cody L.]

My very first income property was in houston (I live in San Diego). A friend of a friend did property management out there.

To get more business he'd find homes that would make good rentals and pitch them to investors. He found one for me (no renter at the time). I bought it, he tossed a renter in there and managed it. I then bought another.

It was totally turn key. They'd collect rent, pay bills, deal with tenant issues, etc. they'd pay me some proceeds every few months.

I didn't even see either of them till years later (when I went to houston to grow my holdings, but that's a long story). I couldn't have told you where they were on a map.

Anyway, there are lots of companies out there like that. Or you can buy a house with a renter in it. If you qualify for traditional financing (sounds like you would with your job) you can get a tremendous return on your down payment funds.

Good luck man. Once you get started it becomes addicting. I don't have an addictive personality generally but if I don't have a deal under contract or in the pipeline I get itchy :)