All Forum Posts by: Samuel Diouf

Welcome to BP Craig! 

You can house-hack anywhere. 

When house-hacking, I would choose the market that you're already living in. Then I would shoot for areas that appreciate the most, because when leveraging the 5% down.. appreciation will bring you the most profits. 

Welcome to Bigger Pockets Trey!

If you’re looking to invest close to home, it helps to network with as many local investors as you can. A great way to start is by attending RE events and joining a local investors association. You can usually find some events by doing a simple google search.

Hey Brice, welcome to BP! 

This is a great place to connect and meet other professionals in the business. 

How's the conference going over there?  

Hey Mohit, 

When doing research on potential areas to invest in, I would first decide whether you want appreciation, cashflow, or a mix of both. If you want cashflow.. look for markets with low entry prices and higher rent averages. If you want appreciation, identify markets with expanding industries, positive growth trends, and bright economic forecasts.

Columbus, Ohio is a great market to consider when looking for appreciation markets that still cash flow. I moved here from Florida after seeing the expansive growth in the Columbus market.

There are multiple billion dollar companies dumping money into the city, such as Intel, Google, Honda, and Amazon. This is causing a huge influx of people moving here for jobs. And a lot of start-up companies are migrating to this city as well because of the OSU campus that has thousands of talented students graduating and looking for positions locally.

Everything that’s going on here in Columbus is attracting investors and other businesses from all over. A recent study showed that 80 people are moving to this city every single week, which will continue to increase housing demand.

Hey Nick, I would start with something either turnkey or light value-add, so you can start forming your boots on the ground team with less pressure and risk. Once you feel you've built a strong team with your first property and have solid systems in place, I would then start buying more aggressively and taking on bigger projects.

I suggest reading this BP article on the core 4.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/core-four-real-estate-team

Columbus, Ohio is a great market to consider if you're looking for appreciation markets that still cash flow. I moved here from Florida after seeing the expansive growth in the Columbus market.

I'm not sure how the Pittsburg market is, and what type of market trend it's currently on, but I know Columbus and it's in a massive growth trend that isn't going to stop anytime soon.

There are multiple billion dollar companies dumping money into the city, such as Intel, Google, Honda, and Amazon. This is causing a huge influx of people moving here for jobs. And a lot of start-up companies are migrating to this city as well because of the OSU campus that has thousands of talented students graduating and looking for positions locally.

Everything that’s going on here in Columbus is attracting investors and other businesses from all over. A recent study showed that 80 people are moving to this city every single week, which will continue to increase housing demand.

The way I learned the most was by deciding what my goal with real estate was, then finding people who've already achieved my goal and learning everything I could from them.

After meeting a ton of successful investors, I think university could help, but I don't think it's a necessity.

Most of the cities in Ohio are very landlord friendly cash-flowing markets. A ton of investors from states that favor tenants are starting to invest in Ohio because of this. 

Read this article from GoBankingRates on the best states to own rental property and you'll see Ohio takes the #1 spot.

Best And Worst States To Own A Rental Property 

When dealing with unique properties like this, I would make sure that the ADU on this property is properly zoned.

If it's not, you won't be able to legally rent out the unit and you'll be opening yourself up to huge liability if anything goes wrong. 

When starting out and wanting to invest OOS, I wouldn't start with a rent by the room investing model. Especially if it isn't allowed in your prospective market. 

If you really want to rent your property out by the room, I would start with purchasing a house-hack local to the market you're moving too. You could house-hack either a duplex or SFH and rent the property out by the room. Doing it this way, you would always be present at the property and be able to keep a pulse on all of your tenants.

I have seen properties get ran into the ground when being rented this way with poor management.