All Forum Posts by: Anne A.

I notice that many of the cities people are investing in, at least from my limited experience, seem to be in the mid-west, south and east coast.

Because I live in Southern California, I am thinking that keeping my out of state investing a little closer to home is a good idea. I've read that both Boise, ID and Salt Lake City, UT are good areas to invest in.

My question is, are there any people here who invest in those areas, and if so, do you use a turn key company or go it on your own?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or comments!

@Derrick Craig - I agree! I'm definitely going to do my research and if I decide to invest in an out of state property, I'll definitely be using a PM company!

@Matt R. - Thanks for the advice. It totally makes sense. I know the value of owning real estate south of the blvd. in the valley. Both of my houses are in the same area. Like I said, part of me thinks that once our current tenants are out, we should put a little bit of money into it and raise the rent. It's a 2400 sq ft, 4 + 3 on a HUGE lot with a view of the valley and a large, level front yard and beautifully landscaped back yard. We currently charge only $3350 a month. I think we could raise it to $3900 with no problem. If we did, then we'd be in a positive cash flow situation. Food for thought!

@Joshua McGinnis - Thanks also for your point of view. It's so great that there are so many people here who are willing to give you honest feedback, suggestions and advice. I'm going to check out that website you mentioned. Even if I don't sell my rental here in LA, I might just invest in something anyway. Having lived in the LA area my whole life, I always thought investing in property would mean having to be able to afford $400k houses. Now that I've done some research, I can see that there are affordable investment opportunities out there and I may NOT need to sell our rental to afford one!

Thanks for the reply, Ali. I'm in Calabasas.

As far as the reverse mortgage goes, we refinanced the house after my father died, so we don't have that to worry about anymore. The problem is, when he did the reverse mortgage, he took out equity AND the mortgage started accumulating $2k a month in additional interest, all of which raised the mortgage quite a bit. We were barely able to refi and keep the house! (Damn those reverse mortgages!)

My brother's totally on board for selling, so no problem there. We just want to make sure we get a good price when we sell. If not, then we'll re-lease it for another couple of years.

So, assuming we're happy with the sale price, I'd like to invest in one or two properties (both MFR and SFR) right off the bat. I don't know how it works regarding getting loans for out of state properties, though. I don't want to use all of my capital to only buy one property, but would rather put down 20%-25% on a couple of different properties and finance the balances. My ultimate goal is to have some buy and hold properties (MFRs) and a couple of SFR properties that will appreciate so that I can sell them down the line.

I'm completely new to this whole idea of investing in real estate, especially out of state, so I'm going to do a lot of research and see what makes sense when the time comes. It's a little scary, but I'm excited about the possibilities! Thanks again for your reply.

Hi everyone,

I'm from the Los Angeles area where I own two homes. One is my principal residence, the other is a rental which we're thinking of selling later this summer. Although it's a nice house (valued at about $825k), because I inherited it with my brother and our father had taken out a reverse mortgage on it one year before he passed away, we're barely breaking even on it every month. We're either going to sell it or put some money into it, fix it up and re-lease it at a higher rental rate.

Right now I'm leaning towards selling it and using the money to invest in multiple properties out of state where I can, A) get a better cash flow and; B) not have to share with my brother! LOL! Seriously though, it would be nice to be able to own more than one property and have positive cash flow on all of them.

Some people (my husband included) think I'm crazy for even thinking about selling a home in the Los Angeles area - that I should just hold onto it, raise the rent and hold it for several more years. Even though it's our family home (my parents purchased it in 1964 and completely rebuilt it in 1995 after the Northridge earthquake), I'm ready to move on.

From what I've read, Indiana and Illinois are good areas to look for properties. I'd like to get a couple of multi-family properties and maybe one or two single family properties. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!