Hi all! I'm just starting out on a long distance investment journey (PA, NJ?)

[Ivan Touevski]

Hi all,

Just wanted to say hello to all and get myself motivated to engage some of the folks here.

A little bit about me, I'm an engineer, have a family, live in NJ, and big DIY enthusiast. I have made a ton of renovations on my houses. I tried renting my first property back at the end of 2019, but the numbers barely made sense at the time and I couldn't find a decent tenant. After a couple of months I called it quits and sold the house in Feb of 2020... little did I know now hehe. Anyhow we gained a ton of equity on our current house so it worked out I guess. 

I am looking to do long distance real estate investing because I do not think there are good opportunities to invest locally in NJ, and the state favors heavily the tenants. Along with my somewhat lackluster experience trying to rent my property. I would like to own more property in NJ, but it's just so expensive. Also I believe my $ will go a lot further in another location. I am having a hard time narrowing down a location. I have been looking at Pittsburgh PA.

here is what I got so far:

1) Location PA - Pittsburgh? Still open to NJ investment. Don't know what neighborhoods to look at in particular. 

I have also Looked at Cincinnati and Columbus OH

2) Property Type - Single Family, 3 bed+, 2 Bath. Prefer a close to turn key or minimal renovation ($10k). 

3) Would need to be positive cash flow, or to break even after conservatives expenditures - property management, maintenance, etc.

Any thoughts?

Thanks all!

[Ashley Miku]

Hey Ivan, 

I relate to your post. I moved from NJ to outside of Philly recently & bought my 1st property in Jan of 2023. I had to really learn the Philly suburbs market (starting from scratch) if I wanted to buy a good deal/future rental.

I found lots of free websites that provide RE analytics on 1 neighborhood but none that compare several neighborhoods based on what I wanted in a property. So I built out a free tool that does this. I'm in data analytics so I love this kind of thing.

I launched this service for real estate agents but I think it could help you and it's free since I haven't proven it out yet. Let me know if you'd like me to run you buy criteria & market through the tool. I can generate analytics/comparisons for any market in the US & email you the report.

Thanks, 

Ashley