Seeking angles on a NJ buy and hold strategy

[Eric D.]

I live in Maplewood, NJ and did buy and holds in the past year - I own a 2-family in Maplewood and a 3-family in West Orange. I bought both off the MLS with conventional 30 year loans and 25% down.

I find, however, that it is very difficult to find a good deal off the MLS. Owners will offer multi families in North and Central Jersey for prices where you cannot make any cash flow with traditional financing like I have. And yet there are people who pay all cash for these properties.

I want to keep investing in real estate so that I can eventually stop working or at least scale back, as I am now 45. But I am intimidated and nervous at the thought of going out of state to PA or even further away. I feel like it is just too big of a time commitment to search for properties there when I have a family in NJ, and that I would have no control over the property after purchasing it. I can imagine headaches with tenants and repairs and it not ending up well.

I just do not see good opportunities here, and I am totally unfamiliar with off-market properties. I have never been to a foreclosure auction. I am not familiar with wholesaling. I am not averse to buying a property at a good price and fixing it up, but have never worked with a hard money lender. Also, it seems like the bargains that do exist are in depressed areas. People have mixed opinions about them. For instance, I know someone who lives in E. Orange and he is not happy there. Yet others have no problem investing there. I do not want headaches, however. And I would not want to put more than a total of 100-175k of my own money into a property.

Any advice on a strategy for me? Anything I am missing or have incorrect with my outlook? Thanks!

[Noel Challenger]

The best deals are in fact through real estate agents and wholesalers. This is because we are in front of real estate every day of the week! Don't forget the #1 rule in all things real estate -> "network, network network!"

There is a ton of competition in NJ, I agree with you on that! But, on the flip side there are still deals out there you just need to find them. The MLS has properties that cash flow, you have to act fast on them as they usually go into attorney review under 2 weeks. 99% of the time if you want to buy a multi-family under 200k you are going to have to buy them distressed and/or do some repairs.