All Forum Posts by: Ali Boone

Hi Zac, I live in LA and I do all my investing out-of-state. My theory on the only way to make good money in California at all is to flip to primary home buyers. You'll see better cash flows and better overall investment quality (like landlord-friendly states vs tenant-friendly, etc). Lucky for you, you are already familiar with turnkeys, and those are perfect for out-of-state investing!

Good luck.

Oh, and for financing, when I didn't have any cash I brought in an investor partner who put the cash up while I took the mortgages and did the work, then we 50/50 split the net. Maybe that's an option?

I haven't done any wholesale deals even in my local area :) I've never ventured into that side of things.

Hey Perry, there is a lot of information on BP about investing out of your local area. Definitely check out the blogs. I've written some on doing exactly that. I would just start looking for the people who do it themselves and talk to them about how/what they do. Jacksonville will be better for prices, but you have to be careful about insurance and taxes in FL. May not be a deal-breaker though, just depends on what you find. The most important thing I'd recommend is learning how to run the numbers on a property to see what your cash flow will look like. Once you know how to do that, you can plug any property in any area into that equation and see if it's worth pursuing. If you don't know what you are looking for, you will easily get fooled into buying something that actually isn't a deal.

Hope that helps!

Ever considered investing out of Colorado instead? I live in LA so can't feasibly invest in my local area, just the same as Colorado. Usually the only way I know to successfully invest in the really expensive areas is to flip. Maybe wholesale, but even that can be iffy. Flipping to primary homeowners can put a nice chunk of change in your pocket. Holding, not so much.

Don't rule out turnkey rental properties as an option for buying. If you're going to be living on a cruise ship, it may get to be a big pain to have to worry about rehabbing! Turnkeys make it much easier to get deals in various markets and not be stuck to just one that you have a crew in.

Hey Jimmy! Welcome, welcome. I'd add Chicago and Houston to Indy and Atlanta for turnkeys. My turnkeys are in Atlanta but I bought before the market went bizerk and the prices skyrocketed. Still good deals there, but inventory is nasty thin, a huge headache fighting the funds, and financing is difficult there because of low appraisals. Indy is good and stable but you won't be looking at a lot of appreciation potential and the returns aren't as high there as they used to be. For those reasons, I've drifted out of both of those and ended up working with Chicago and Houston where the all-around value proposition is, in my opinion, awesome.

Happy investing!

Houston is a great market to start in! But more importantly, is that a pilot's headset I see in your picture....?

Heyo! Great market to be in. I work with a lot of investors eating up turnkey properties out there, of which I highly recommend for new investors especially, so if you ever want contacts in that arena I can send you their way.

Canadians! I'm not in Canada, but I'd say most of the investors I talk to and work with are from Canada. The comment is true about having a trusted contact in the states to help you out. There are easy ways to take advantage of the US market, and more than anything make sure your tax and entity structuring is in place correctly. Canadians shouldn't use LLCs, oddly enough. Some weird quirks and twists with those, but easy workarounds.

Atlanta has definitely been a hot market, but Houston is probably the next biggest one for those hoping for warm-weather locations. Chicago is another, but some want away from the cold.

But the biggest place I run into Canadians...are you ready, are you ready?...Nicaragua. Investors' paradise, amazing emerging market, tropical weather.

Happy investing!

I'm definitely leery of this article. Some of the markets they mention are inaccurate, they are leaving out some of the biggest investors' markets right now, and yeah... take this one with a grain of salt.