Analysis Paralysis - Can you relate?

[Daniel Preston]

Looking for anyone who can relate to the following:

I'm in an expensive local market (lot of capital needed for starting up), which is also ranked as one of the worst states in the country on number of metrics. Yes, poor little Rhode Island. Of which, I have little faith in it's future. However, I'm looking for an active investment strategy that ISN'T necessarily locally dependent.

So far I've listened to podcasts 1-80ish and read the blogs daily, yet am still lost. I jump from flipping vacant land (@Seth Williams), to tax liens (@Ankit Duggal), to mobile homes (@John Fredo) and everything in between that isn't too local-market dependent.  And I just can't make up my mind!

In a perfect world, I'd move to a state that would allow me to do some BRRRR's, as the strategy is interesting and fits my personality and skill set. However, my local market doesn't really support that strategy without significant capital, and even then I don't have much faith in the state to begin with. Problem is, I can't move due to family, so I'm stuck here.

Most would just simply suggest house hacking (hard with a 6-month old) or turnkey.  But I think turnkey is too hands off for me with marginal returns.

I'm sure there are others who have been in a similar situation before, and I'm interested in hearing what approach you took.  I'm sure there's a simple solution right in front of me, but with all this researching I can't see the forest for the trees.

Happy for any and all input!

Dan

[Jeff Stephens]

Thanks for your post, Dan. I wanted to share a couple thoughts that I hope can be helpful. I agree that the different "flavors" of real estate are so vast that it can seem daunting and can lead to indecision. While there are many of these different flavors that pique my curiosity, I've pretty much honed in on a fairly narrow set of strategies I use. In my case, it's off-market deal sourcing, and private financing (often seller financing). I prefer to invest locally only, even though many would say my market has slim pickings.  I too am in a fairly expensive area, where cash flow is low in relation to purchase prices. I'd encourage you to spend some energy marketing directly to property owners of the types of properties you'd like to buy.  I think there's a good chance you may be pleasantly surprised at your ability to put a worthwhile deal together working directly with the seller, and doing seller financing.  Even if your local economy isn't booming, per se, if the deal you create is good enough, it just might be worth doing.  

Last but not least, my advice is always to just pause the studying, get out there, look at properties, talk to people and get started. It might feel like you're flailing around aimlessly at first, but the real-life, boots-on-the-street perspective you'll gain from that will give you ideas and open doors that you can't really predict at this moment.