Here is your scenario – Your financial standing is as follows: • $80,000 in cash savings • $70,000 household salary (will be $100k+ in 3-5yrs) • $20,000 debt (school, cc and medical) • $0 assets You are married with no kids and can move anywhere in the U.S. Your only location requirements/desires are as follows: • Must have warm weather 9+/mo out of the year • Must have good - strong job market (UI Developer/Nurse) • Must have relatively low cost of living (unlike the Bay Area) • Should have healthy real estate market (rentals and flips) Here are your long-term objectives/goals: • Purchase at least 10 acres of land to build a small house and start a small permaculture farm • Become financially independent in 10 years • Establish the financial foundations for generational wealth Given this financial standing, these location requirements/desires and these long-term objectives/goals, and a year to plan/move: • Where do you move to and why? • How do you start your empire? • What challenges/obstacles will you look out for? To give you an idea of where I've currently been looking here are some places that interest me, though I do have reservations about each: • Charlotte, NC • Dallas, TX • Houston, TX • Kansas City, MO • Atlanta, GA • Jacksonville, FL • Reno, NV My current (10 min) strategy is to buy a duplex, live in half and rent out half. Wait a few years... refi and buy another property... not really sure. Thank you for helping me plan and I look forward to hearing your ideas and/or advice!

Personal location choice and wanting to be a hippy farmer aside your time line based on your initial plan of a duplex, wait a few years, repeat is not even close to reaching financial independents in 10 years. Replacing a income of $100,000K per year in ten years is going to require 40+ doors easily at $200/month positive cash flow. If on the other hand your immersion into the hippy life style involves a simpler way of life then you could obviously get by on less but you need to concentrate on purchasing at a much faster rate. You need to target purchasing 1-2 properties a year to meet your goals. Generational wealth ? Why. The majority of second generation loose their parents wealth. Just leave them enough to get started building their own wealth.

Don't listen to the advice of others about such a big life decision. You and your family should do your own research and figure out what you want. Don't move your family somewhere you guys don't end up liking to chase real estate because some guy you don't know on the internet said so

Matthew, I would recommend Ballantyne/Waxhaw area for you and your family to stay and for investment there are several areas like University, Mint Hill, Matthews, Harrisburg. I am also exploring the areas to invest in buy and hold properties. keep asking questions and if I know the correct answers I will respond back. Thanks,Sid

Matthew I am in Charlotte NC and I would think this town is exactly suitable for someone in that situation. I have been hear sine 2008. The reason i say Charlotte NC is there lot of scope for development and housing market is good. Schools are great too in some areas. They are developing the infrastructure for current and future needs. I know my answer is not complete so let me know if you have any questions about Charlotte NC.

Hi Account Closed , I have lived in Dallas for the past 16 years and have not experienced the aforementioned "texas mentality/bigotry." What I can tell you is that Dallas is truly awesome! It is such a melting pot and I can't tell you how many people I have met here who have moved here from other states, cities, and countries etc. Not to mention, that most people have told me that despite all of places they have travelled and lived, Dallas is their favorite... Now I know this sounds too good to be true but I just thought I would share. My personal experience is that the cost of living is wonderful, it's a great place to do business, and it's a hot market for REI. Regarding small scale farming, I have no knowledge, but I will tell you community supported agriculture is big here, there are great local farmer's markets...so perhaps small scale farming is an option? Regarding the heat, August is the worst! However, I have adjusted to the heat through the years, and the beautiful spring/fall seasons along with the mild winters, make it all worthwhile to me. Best of luck on your endeavors!

Rock on. Sounds like you're taking this decision seriously and looking at it from all angles, as you should. We lived in a surprisingly nice 1 BR apartment in a relatively safe area overlooking Lake Merritt and downtown, for $1450. We spent the same amount on other expenses overall since I didn't have to travel to support my surf, ski or kayaking habits. :) I worked in the ICU at Alta Bates, and aside from an insanely mean boss, was happy making $130k plus ridiculous benefits, with the opportunity to make more with overtime. Maybe our setup was unusually good, but it let us come out of PA and NP school with minimal debt. Wages for nurses in the Southeast are rotten, at about 1/3 what I was making in Oakland. :( Hopefully your career will have a more reasonable payout here. You're right to hesitate to buy remotely- I think you'd need a trusted ally, such as a friend or family member, you could hire to do the groundwork for you. This is my current mode since I work in Texas and live in Asheville, and it works great since I have the right ally and pay him well. I'm not sure about other money sources, but I think your income, credit and cash stash should set you up pretty well to use conventional financing, at least for the first 3-4 buys. I think using high-interest business or private money loans is only sustainable if you have super high-paying properties, which are beyond my scope. I buy semi-decent little houses, and try to end up with around a 1.2% ratio of monthly rent to overall purchase, rehab and finance cost. I haven't actually pulled that off yet, but even the ones that are around 1.1 to 1.15 pay well for me. Let me know if I can offer any more info, and good luck!

Your situation is pretty similar to ours... we went to a Charles Schwab financial planner (free with Schwab brokerage accounts) and he helped us figure out the nitty gritty of what we really need to do to retire early. I agree with parts of an earlier post that you'll need to be more aggressive, sooner, to make it happen, but not with the need for 40 properties. Interest rates are low enough that if you use conventional financing you should see more like $250-$400 in cash flow per house, if you score good deals and can keep the costs under control. We used a HELOC, plus our cash stash, to buy and rehab a rental, then refinanced and repeated... and repeated... This plan works well but the 6-month delay between buying and refinancing, and the closing costs, make it less than ideal. We live in Asheville, which has a strong rental market, but an exceptionally competitive buyer's market, with good deals likely suffering multiple bids, even as FSBOs. It's also really hard to make any money in either of y'all's professions here. In your case, I would move to the Bay area where nursing pays tons, live reasonably, and invest elsewhere, then move once you're set up with good rental income. This worked well for us, and Oakland/Berkeley/Santa Cruz are really fun places to live. Otherwise it'll take too long to establish passive income on regular wages, especially in the Southeast. Good luck y'all!

That is a great question, and I wish I knew the answer. I think it falls somewhere between tax collection, protecting hotels and just plain stubbornness. What I do know is the fines are very high at $500 per day if you are found in violation. Many people who bought properties based on the income they generated as short term rentals are finding themselves in big trouble since they can no longer collect that income. Here is a story on the topic...Lawsuit: Can Asheville ban short-term rentals?

Account ClosedPoster

Middleton, WI

Starting Out

Where Should I Move... Scenario - Help me plan my future

Account ClosedPoster

Middleton, WI

Posted March 19, 2016 10:20

Here is your scenario –

Your financial standing is as follows:

$80,000 in cash savings
$70,000 household salary (will be $100k+ in 3-5yrs)
$20,000 debt (school, cc and medical)
$0 assets

You are married with no kids and can move anywhere in the U.S. Your only location requirements/desires are as follows:

Must have warm weather 9+/mo out of the year
Must have good - strong job market (UI Developer/Nurse)
Must have relatively low cost of living (unlike the Bay Area)
Should have healthy real estate market (rentals and flips)

Here are your long-term objectives/goals:

Purchase at least 10 acres of land to build a small house and start a small permaculture farm
Become financially independent in 10 years
Establish the financial foundations for generational wealth

Given this financial standing, these location requirements/desires and these long-term objectives/goals, and a year to plan/move:

Where do you move to and why?
How do you start your empire?
What challenges/obstacles will you look out for?

To give you an idea of where I've currently been looking here are some places that interest me, though I do have reservations about each:

Charlotte, NC
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
Kansas City, MO
Atlanta, GA
Jacksonville, FL
Reno, NV

My current (10 min) strategy is to buy a duplex, live in half and rent out half. Wait a few years... refi and buy another property... not really sure.

Thank you for helping me plan and I look forward to hearing your ideas and/or advice!

2 Votes

51 Replies

Jump to Last Reply

Where Should I Move... Scenario - Help me plan my future

Most Popular Reply