First Investment Questions and Concerns

[Parker Brian]

Hello Everyone!

My wife and I are looking to start our journey on real estate investing. We are wanting to hit the ground running. We have a couple of roadblocks that we are trying to overcome. We are struggling to find a market in which we can afford with our own money. Our goal is to have a great portfolio of rental properties. Obviously, if we can be in areas with good cash flow or appreciation, that would be great. We currently live in Castle Rock, CO where that Market is crazy and prices are extremely out of our price range. The question we have is would it be smart to invest in a smaller market with extremely low property prices, such as Muncie Indiana, or Cleveland Ohio, where we could afford small multifamily or single-family home? Or focus on another route? Perhaps find a semi-fixer-upper and use the BRRRR method with a hard money loan and go from there? Again, we are brand new to real estate investing and have lots of motivation and energy, we just aren't sure where to start.

Thank you in advance!

[Joe Villeneuve]

'Obviously, if we can be in areas with good cash flow or appreciation, that would be great'.

No, that would be mandatory, as in required, as in "not an option".

If you want to gather rental properties, they must have five things in common, from the very beginning, or don't buy them:

1 - positive cash flow
2 - minimum cost = down payment.
3 - Positive Cash Flow
4 - At least 5% appreciation per year
5 - High enough POSITIVE CASH FLOW so that you will recover all of your cost (see #2) within 5 years.