Trouble choosing a niche

[Chad Adams]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading and listening to everything I can for the last several months. Thank you to all of you for making BP such an amazing place full of awesome info.

I am beginning my search for my first investment property and I'm having trouble deciding which direction to go. I don't really have a mentor, so I'm hoping BP can be a "sounding board" of sorts for me.

So, what are my goals:

I'm interested in passive income with a focus toward building up a portfolio of rental properties to provide income during my retirement (still 20ish years away)

At some point in the future (retirement years), I know I'd like to have 10-15 (or more) units that are mostly paid for and require fairly low maintenance (quality construction, nicer neighborhoods).

I don't live in an area that appreciates well, so I'm mostly focused on cashflow.

Other info:

I'm pretty handy. My dad was a handymand while I was growing up. I built my own house (I didn't GC it, I actually built it).

So, I'm trying to develop a plan of action. Right now the plans available seem to fall into these areas:

• Single Family Houses - focus on houses that need work. Buy, rehab, rent. I don't see many of these that seem like they would provide decent cash flow.
• Multi-Family - focus on duplexes, triplexes and quads.
  
  • This seems to cash-flow a lot better that SFH.
  • Because of my goals I would rather end up with MFH designed to be MFH, but it seems the SFH converted to MFH cash-flow a lot better, so I wonder about focusing on cash flow in order to build experience as well as bank some extra money to reinvest down the road.
• Multi-Family - the best cash flowing properties where I live seem to be small apartment complexes (less than 20 units). I have found several that are 5 to 15 units and the numbers seem to look best on these, almost to the point of it seems too good to be true so I feel like I'm missing something.

More Info:

Average rents in my area:

1br = $350-$425

2br = $500-575

3br = $650-800

I don't have a lot of Cash in savings. I'll be using a $60,000 HELOC to help finance any deals I find (at least to get started). I work full time as a software developer (home office), but have a fairly flexible schedule.

Looking for guidance.

Thanks,

Chad