All Forum Posts by: Claudia W.

Hello BP Community.

Currently we live in Hawaii (stationed here with the military), but it looks like we might get out soon. For the first time in a long time, we're faced with the option of moving wherever we want. We know that we want to start real estate investing and hopefully make this our main source of income (first through flipping houses, eventually moving into B&Hs). We're looking for a state/city/area that has great (and affordable) potential for real estate (with ARVs no higher than 200k) but also gives us a great quality of life. We're both very outdoorsy and would love to experience all 4 seasons again. Currently we're considering (in no particular order):

For quality of life: Denver and surrounding areas, Oregon (Portland?), Utah (SLC area?)

For real estate potential: Texas (Houston, Austin, San Antonio), Atlanta, Mobile (AL), Michigan/Ohio

We realize that there will be a trade-off either way, but we'd like to make a "smart" decision that enables us to get started in investing fairly soon (we'll have about 80k cash).

So, here's the question we're currently faced with: If you could move anywhere in the country, where would you move? 

This sounds great! Wishing we were in Denver already!

Welcome to BP, @Kevin Furst ! We also currently live on Oahu and will start our REI "career" once we move back to the mainland. At the moment we're still unsure of where we'll move as it all depends on the Army. Good luck with everything!

thank you @Micki M. ! We'd definitely appreciate all the help we can get to learn more about the area (also for where we should live etc). 

Hi @Jared Boring and welcome to this great community! My husband and I are also considering relocating to Denver within the next year! Looks like overall we're in the same phase of our real estate investing careers. We're currently reading books, educating ourselves and also listening to the podcasts on our way to work! We also want to make flipping houses our new job in order to eventually enable us to buy more B&H properties and generate passive income. Good luck on your journey and maybe we'll meet in Denver one day! 

@Eddie Mowrer I'd love to connect with you to find out more on the properties you have available. Feel free to add me on here!

@Paul Timmins

Elizabeth C. I'm intrigued by the idea of long-distance landlording! I never even thought of this as a possibility and once our current tenants move out I will try everything to manage the place ourselves (managing a tenant can't be more headache than managing our current PM). OP, sorry for hijacking your post.

Hallo Mario,

I'm originally from Austria as well! I have to agree with Laura, that the market in Austria doesn't seem as "liquid" over there as it is in the US. As you know yourself, the mentality in Austria is different and once people are settled, they rarely move. With that being said, I know one guy who flips houses for a living in Austria - so it is possible. Again, as Laura suggested, try to become an assistant for someone who's doing it. Maybe ask general contractors (or any other "Handwerker") - they might now who's rehabbing houses in your area. Financing typically isn't as flexible as it is here in the US, but then again I've never done it "back home". Let me know how your search for a potential network is going! Maybe we should just start one! 

Aloha everyone,

My husband and I currently live in Hawaii and are looking to get started in REI soon. Our strategy is to start out with rehabbing houses at first to increase our financial resources and then eventually transition to buy and holds. We've established a 10 year plan that should enable us to have acquired enough properties to be financially independent enough to where we can travel the world! We're currently still in the education phase of our investing career and are reading books, blogs and listening to the podcast every day on our way to work.

Here's a little bit about our background: we bought our first house in Alabama (before we knew anything about REI). Our agent then sold us on how it would make for a great investment property once we move and just rent it out (the good old rent-mortgage=profit). Needless to say, we're not making money on this, the market (house values and rents alike) are steadily going down and now we can't even sell it because we're underwater - unless any of you have a creative solution for us?

Moving on to our next 'deal'. We bought our 3/2 home in Hawaii using the VA loan again, as a short sale this time) but didn't really negotiate 'a deal'. Luckily, it has been appreciating quickly and we're looking to sell it within the next year.

About 6 months ago we found BP, ironically while researching reviews on certain gurus that came to town. While the 3 day seminar gave us the final push and motivation to seriously consider real estate, we're now very happy that we didn't fork over the tens of thousands for 'advanced training'. BP blog posts, the forums and of course the podcast are amazing resources and we're soaking up as much information as we can :)  I'm looking forward to being a part of this great community and learn from and grow with it! 

P.S. Our next step will be to buy a duplex/triplex/fourplex using the VA loan again once we moved back to the mainland. We then plan on living in it for 2 years while renting out the other units. This should give us a nice start into becoming long term buy and hold investors, all while hopefully living rent free.

@Mitch Dowler, Great points! This is also the route we plan on taking. We've currently used the VA loan to buy our property here in Hawaii, but plan on selling it once we PCS again. (Bought it as a short sale, so it actually appreciated in the short 2 years we've owned it). Then we want to buy a multiple unit property using our VA loan entitlement again. Do you know the limits as far as repairs needed? (We don't want to buy at retail, but realize that the conditions of the property has to be good enough to qualify for VA).