Hello! New Minneapolis Investor relocating from Los Angeles

[Colin Percy]

Hi everybody!

I'd like to take this chance to introduce myself as a new Minneapolis investor. I graduated from the University of Minnesota and I currently live in Los Angeles (Mar Vista). In the next 6 months, I plan to relocate to Minneapolis and make the leap into investing. My goal with this approach is to use lower living expenses to improve my day job cash flow and begin house hacking where market values are low enough for me to "start small".

In the spirit of collaboration, I'd love to take this chance to share the latest draft of my emerging investment strategy for feedback.

My "Why" and CF Goal:

I love not working for someone else, and I'd love to travel without someone counting my days out of office. Most of all, I want the freedom of creating my own destiny a la "Rich Dad". To generate 3x my monthly costs, I estimate I would need to cash flow 6k per month. In the spirit of collaboration, I submit for your feedback my emerging investment plan:

Markets considered, favored:

Favored: Minneapolis - Strong employment, population and rent growth, in addition to what appears to be relatively low and falling values makes this very compelling. Bonus: my sister is house hacking a triplex near Lake of the Isles, and I can start with neighborhoods where I already have basic local knowledge. 

Considered: Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Kansas City

Investments: Arguably the most "under construction" part of my plan, your insights are welcome and encouraged.

2BR, 2+BA Condos with roommates - Lower values lower barriers to entry theoretically, but internet skimming of this investment implies that HOA assessments are an ROI risk to be likened to underestimated capex. If I can use house hacking to improve my overall cash flow and build equity in this first deal, is that a risk worth taking, assuming the deal is good?

2BR+1-2BA SFH  & Duplex MFH - I have a lot of research to do here. If you're an expert around the Twin Cities, I'd love to hear from you. 

Next Steps:

Meet great local investors, agents, brokers, and lenders like you and offer to buy Juicy Lucy & IPAs for your wisdom. Help you out with a few deals, and start setting up my lead funnel.

Thanks everyone. Hope the novel was relatively skimmable.

Cheers!

Colin