All Forum Posts by: Ali Boone

Not to sound like a Texas geography moron, but not sure how far Houston is from you but that is a huge market for rentals right now, excellent for both cash flow and appreciation potential. I'd say there and Dallas are the two big ones people are buying in, but Dallas is a lot more expensive. The hedge funds are poking around in Houston right now, which means there's definitely focus for a reason there. I only deal with turnkey rentals and know a couple companies there that do them, so if you went that route you wouldn't have to worry about the properties once you bought them, but since you are at least in TX you could still make it out to them.

Hey Paul! Congrats on the AF retirement. My dad retired after 27 years reserves. He was a 141 pilot. Somehow the flying genes got passed down and I never went AF because my eyes disqualified me but I am a civilian flight instructor. Also worked for Lockheed for a while so did a lot of contract work for the AF, a lot in places that were less than 'attractive' places to work.

I'm with Marco on the option 2 opinion, I avoid the low-end stuff like the plague. Have had way too many lower-end tenant problems that ended up costing me a fortune to want to go that route. For option 1, interesting. It almost seems too good to be true and Marco may have a point there too about whether the way it's being rented is legal or not. I'd want to do some more digging on that one, but a big one too is to know exactly what condition it is in from an inspector because it could have a lot of hidden repairs needed that could do a number on your pockets.

What kind of investing are you wanting to do JD Mathieu? Any ideas? I'm not far from you, up in LA! I'm going to be down in SD in a couple weekends actually to see my cousin and go surfing...of which I just started so by "surfing" I really mean "faceplanting".

Welcome! Where'd you buy the first two? Local in Austin?

Where are you hoping to buy Andrea Poletti?

Hey Brian! Good for you for checking out the clubs. Which one are you going to? I am from Atlanta and my properties are there, and I was just there for a few months over the holidays and checked a couple meetings out.

I wrote an article on here a while back about REI clubs and events and such. Not sure if it will help you at all, but feel free to check it out:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/02/02/real-estate-investing-clubs/

I only buy non-MLS properties and my properties in Atlanta were all unlisted. If you want any contacts for those, let me know and I can get you hooked up.

Welcome fellow Californian! You'll love BP.

Welcome Jose! I'd love to hear more about your buying and holding and your thoughts about creative financing for tenants. I don't hear many investors looking out for their tenants like that! I have some tenants under lease options to buy (legit feasible options, not scammy options). Where do you live, where do you invest?

I'd say if you are thinking about flipping, you can really go anywhere. You want to be able to flip to primary homebuyers because you'll make more than flipping to investors, so stay out of the investor hotspots like Atlanta and Houston and you'll be fine. Just go somewhere with a growing population and you'll always have buyers!

I'd say don't stress over whether you should be buying one or the other. Look at all of the buying opportunities you can find and buy the best one. You don't have to be a single- or multi-family investor, you can own both. Just make sure you know the pros and cons to each and then find a good deal and work it. Remember with single-families, your exit strategies are dramatically increased and oftentimes your tenant quality can be a lot higher, just depending on where you invest. Even if no quality difference, tenants of multis tend to be more transient than singles which will increase your expenses with the turnovers. Again, pros and cons to both. Just find a good deal. Pursue both and see which avenue lands you something better.