Invest in Tampa or out of state

[Alec Strahl]

Looking for some advice. Currently living in Tampa, my wife and I have about 100k saved up and are finally able to buy our first house. Our max budget is 500k. I also want to be a real estate investor long term so I’d like to be smart with this first property. The problem is we are finding it very hard to find anything in Tampa that we feel good about being a good long term investment. Prices still feel very inflated here and 500k doesn’t get you far.

I’m considering just scrapping the idea of buying in Tampa. My job is in sales and it’s hard to say we will stay here long term anyways, we also really like st Pete/ Clearwater area and could get more house there in the future for the money.

My question is, is it crazy to just use this 100k to buy a property out of state where I can actually find something that could be a better investment and forget buying a primary residence now and just keep renting? I want to be smart with this 100k because it could take us another 5-7 years to save up another 100k. Any other creative ideas are welcome. 🙏

[Drew Sygit]

@Alec Strahl when starting out, it's always best to invest locally, even 1-2 hours away, where you can relatively easily check on your property.

You'd be shocked at the ugly surprises some investors have found out about their properties when they didn't keep proper tabs on them:(

If you do invest further than 1-2 hours from your home, be sure to ask yourself, "what's the worse that can happen" and plan accordingly.

Another possiblity is to buy a 2-4 unit property, live in one unit and rent out the rest. You'll learn so much about tenants and repairs this way! 

Or you could buy a SFR with a lot of bedrooms or an ADU, or a garage you can convert legally into an ADU and rent out as MTR or STR to learn.