Starting off in an expensive market

[Account Closed]

My husband and I are in our late 20’s and live on Oahu, Hawaii. Real estate is very expensive here, so I was wondering if anyone had advice for starting out in a market like this, is it even possible without a lot of capital to start off with?

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

My husband and I are in our late 20’s and live on Oahu, Hawaii. Real estate is very expensive here, so I was wondering if anyone had advice for starting out in a market like this, is it even possible without a lot of capital to start off with?

I started out in an expensive market doing expensive properties that weren't kept up. I was a loan officer at the time so I was constantly seeing how a "good deal" would look. I figured out what people wanted given their various stages of life and circumstances. These were properties the sellers didn't necessarily want to actually have to finance, but since the houses lacked the maintenance and lacked the appeal to go into the MLS, they were told by the agents to take care of it so it could be listed. After finding out what it was the borrower/seller really wanted, I simply would give them cash for their equity and take over the house and the project. That was a relief for them and a "new" property for me. Then I would fix & flip the property.

So, There really are only two options I can think of. 

1) Find an "off market" property that you can take "Subject To, on a "Wrap", or a "Land Contract" or a "Lease Option and proceed with either Fix & Flip or Buy & Hold or sell to a Tenant Buyer (my favorite).

2) Find someone on the mainland that you can Joint Venture with in a market your finances can afford.

Either way, you have to start somewhere. I looked at a couple of houses in Honolulu that were basically tear downs and if I remember correctly, they were in the $1 million range. In Phoenix, a bigger property is much closer to $225k to $300k and can be very profitable.