All Forum Posts by: Danielle Jackson

Do you know where you want to invest? How are you evaluating the markets? I would suggest finding an agent in the market you are looking at to help ensure you understand their landlord/tenant laws, familiarize you with the neighborhoods, and give you insights you will never find by researching online. 

Welcome to the forum! 

Thanks for sharing. Great breakdown of various investment strategies and benefits to each. 

An agent can pull comps for you. 

Also, I would leverage realtor relationships. They generally can provide some great employment reports. 

Try http://www.city-data.com/ to get started. It provides a ton of raw data, including type of employment (self, govt, private company, etc) and unemployment rates by neighborhood. Also, go to your local town/city website. It provides great data, including key industries, at a broader level that you may have to interpret for your area. Here is an example of our local information.

Choose Buckeye | Economic Development - Grow Buckeye

I would tap your realtor/broker network. They almost always have great recommendations. Another option is if you have a relationship with an inspector, that is personally how we found one of the best contractors & maintenance people around. Good luck.    

Agree with comments above. Check out the actual DTI numbers and what relative debt you could pay down to get it to where it needs to be.

Congrats on finding this deal! Sounds like it works as a long term play (as long as all expenses factored).

Getting rid of it and paying the additional closing costs will only add to the short-term loss. Can you refi and pay off the high interest debt? Or is a refi already factored into the numbers you used for your cash-flow calcs?