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. 🙏

[Samuel Diouf]

Hey Alec, a lot of investors based in markets that aren't cash-flowing right now are choosing to purchase their investments OOS in the Midwest because of the affordability and numbers making more sense.

Prices are still low enough to find 1% rule deals, and there's a ton of appreciation happening in certain markets as well. I actually moved from Florida to Ohio for the real estate. I saw how fast the market was growing and decided to make the jump.