How to decide what city to do your first house hack

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How to decide what city to do your first house hack

Mitch Walker
Member since 2023 · 48 posts · 11 votes

Good morning to all,

I'm a traveling operating room nurse from FL originally...my girlfriend and I plan to make a perm location somewhere in the greater south/southeast. Possibly, Savannah, Charleston, NWF (If I can convince her). Question is this. I browse zillow, redfin, realtor.com, etc. to see how many listings and how big a market is. I LOVE the idea of our first property/home (first time homeowners for us also....likely to be in 2024, market depending). However, I want to then begin the journey of transitioning from healthcare into real estate (not a quick transition I know), but while we love smaller, more charming, charismatic cities, I am curious if they'd be too small for investing. Would we be better off in say Tampa, suburbs of Atlanta, or outskirts of a Nashville/Knoxville, or Birmingham like location? I/we don't want to be in huge cities (we're early 40s and value quality of life vs crazy traffic), but want to be proximate to options and accessibility. To summarize, how do we decide what is the better option....smaller town we'd love, or something slightly bigger. I also like the FHA 3.5% down approach

Thanks so much everyone.

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Kyle Spearin
Real Estate Agent · Boston, MA · Member since 2016 · 450 posts · 214 votes
3y

@Mitch Walker it sounds like you have a lot of experience traveling throughout the south for work. I'd personally think about where YOU want to live and work backwards from there. You can find houses in any market, so you might as well enjoy where you're living if it's your primary residence. 

Don't worry about being in a trendy market if you have a desire to be in a certain place over another-- there are successful real estate investors in every part of this country. That's why real estate is so awesome!

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  • Kevin Bartlett
    Realtor · Member since 2023 · 177 posts · 41 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Mitch Walker:
    Quote from @Kevin Bartlett:

    Welcome to the forums Mitch! Have you ever considered Southwest Florida?


     Kevin,

    Rock and a hard place there.  I grew up in Tampa, have lived in all corners of the state, except SE FL (and no desire to).  SW is ok.  I like the idea of a Tampa/Orlando/Jax more because they're slightly more bigger city of a locale, with outskirts communities and still in a greater regional area.  Why do you ask about SW?  Curious.

    Thx!

     I think you have to go to the place that you REALLY want to live in. Maybe be sure to travel to all of them and do a rotation in each city before making the decision?

    0Reply
  • Mitch Walker
    OP
    Member since 2023 · 48 posts · 11 votes
    3y
    Quote from @Kevin Bartlett:
    Quote from @Mitch Walker:
    Quote from @Kevin Bartlett:

    Welcome to the forums Mitch! Have you ever considered Southwest Florida?


     Kevin,

    Rock and a hard place there.  I grew up in Tampa, have lived in all corners of the state, except SE FL (and no desire to).  SW is ok.  I like the idea of a Tampa/Orlando/Jax more because they're slightly more bigger city of a locale, with outskirts communities and still in a greater regional area.  Why do you ask about SW?  Curious.

    Thx!

     I think you have to go to the place that you REALLY want to live in. Maybe be sure to travel to all of them and do a rotation in each city before making the decision?


     Kevin,

    That's the place I've arrived to in my mind.  My GF and I will slowly be talking it over and deciding where.  A balance of a perhaps smaller city, proximate to a larger one, I believe would be ideal.

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