Reality check - investing out of state

[Mark Bennett]

I've done the homework. I've scoured every market across the U.S. I've built spreadheeets, saved up capital, and have been making moves. After endless hours of research I found the deals that pencil! The glorious beginning of financial freedom! Easy, right? I think one thing people don't talk about much is how difficult or unwelcoming it can be for someone out of state trying to buy investment properties. Maybe they don't want your California type investing in Texas. Maybe they don't want a New Jersey guy buying up property in Memphis. This is all made up, of course, but who knows? I've had some very weird / shady things happen to derail deals that were nearly done. For example, I made a fairly aggressive offer on a very stagnant quad plex listing in Alabama that was listed on the MLS for a month and my price was quickly accepted. Magically, within less than 2 minutes of of my congratulations text I was notified that an escalation clause offer popped up to beat whatever I offered + X. Really? Within 1 minute that offer magically appeared? I've also had under contract deals derailed because of weird things like tenants with free roaming birds tenants were hiding, and most commonly people flat out hide numbers or lie about rental income and annual expenses. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from making a splash but my experiences have reminded me why investing where you're familiar can be a much more prudent option even if the numbers don't "pencil" as well as they do in areas you are not familiar with. Remember, it's a long game and real estate always wins. You simply don't know what traps you're walking into in these out of state markets. Without a doubt there are plenty of great opportunities but my experience here has taught me to be much more prudent with who I trust and being boots on the ground is absolutely essential in any area i explore investing in going forward. The journey is young, but that's been my experience so far and wanted to share it with this community that's been so helpful to me with the searches. Best of luck to all of you!

[Mendy M.]

Quote from @Mark Bennett:

I've done the homework. I've scoured every market across the U.S. I've built spreadheeets, saved up capital, and have been making moves. After endless hours of research I found the deals that pencil! The glorious beginning of financial freedom! Easy, right? I think one thing people don't talk about much is how difficult or unwelcoming it can be for someone out of state trying to buy investment properties. Maybe they don't want your California type investing in Texas. Maybe they don't want a New Jersey guy buying up property in Memphis. This is all made up, of course, but who knows? I've had some very weird / shady things happen to derail deals that were nearly done. For example, I made a fairly aggressive offer on a very stagnant quad plex listing in Alabama that was listed on the MLS for a month and my price was quickly accepted. Magically, within less than 2 minutes of of my congratulations text I was notified that an escalation clause offer popped up to beat whatever I offered + X. Really? Within 1 minute that offer magically appeared? I've also had under contract deals derailed because of weird things like tenants with free roaming birds tenants were hiding, and most commonly people flat out hide numbers or lie about rental income and annual expenses. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from making a splash but my experiences have reminded me why investing where you're familiar can be a much more prudent option even if the numbers don't "pencil" as well as they do in areas you are not familiar with. Remember, it's a long game and real estate always wins. You simply don't know what traps you're walking into in these out of state markets. Without a doubt there are plenty of great opportunities but my experience here has taught me to be much more prudent with who I trust and being boots on the ground is absolutely essential in any area i explore investing in going forward. The journey is young, but that's been my experience so far and wanted to share it with this community that's been so helpful to me with the searches. Best of luck to all of you!

Real estate agents and other people trying to make money… Exaggerating rent numbers, and the prices for insurance and taxes, is nothing new or exclusive out of town investing.
You always have to confirm and cross reference numbers that people give you, especially if the one giving them has incentive to exaggerate them.

On the point of people derailing your deals: it’s very possible that those things had nothing to do with you being out of state, but it is possible that it didn’t have to do with that as well.
It really depends who you work with, and which market you’re in - for some people business’s business, and they don’t care where in the country you are, while others  might have slight reservations about you being an out of town investor buying up property. Also, some markets have tons of foreign investors, so it’s no big deal for them, while others, that’s not the case.

Look: Nothing works for everyone, but I think it’ll depend on which market is your local market, who your team would be, and last but not least, your personality, skills and preferences.