New Investor Looking For A Market To Get Started In

[Michael Fucillo]

Hello Bigger Pockets! I am a new investor in NJ ready to get started! I have been educating myself for the past year or so by reading books, listening to podcasts, and talking to colleagues/friends about their experiences. Also, I rehabbed my home doing just about all of the work myself. Bigger pockets has been an incredible resource thus far and I am excited to join the community by asking questions and contribute wherever I can. So here I go!

I would like to know what areas people are investing in for buy and hold in 2018. After reading “Long Distance Real Estate Investing” by David Greene I am ready to begin investing in any market where the deals make sense for the type of investing I am interested in. Here are the details:

Would like to buy a four plex

Ok if it needs some work on the surface and finishes (especially if it will add a significant value)

My most strict criteria is that it has to be in a good area, with good schools/jobs to attract good tenants. I have no interest in being a slumlord.

ROI above 10%, $100- $200 / door cash flow (note: I will use a property management company)

Less than $100k cash outlay, preferably $50k for my first one

This strategy is very appealing to me.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/plan-to-make-a-million/?utm_source=newsletter

I may want to speed it up a bit but I like the idea of “trading up.”

[Brian Garlington]

@Michael Fucillo    @Samantha A.

Fourplex in a "Good Area" for under 100K but ideally under 50K?   If either of you finds that PLEASE let me know. 

All kidding aside.....You can accomplish your cashflow goal.....of $100 to $200 per door in Cleveland easily.....on properties around $50K and a little....and if done correctly....in a "C" Neighborhood. I've done it with a couple of duplexes and a 3/1 SFR with what I've bought over the last few months there. All are at 3% rule and up.

You might even be able to buy a Fourplex for $100K or under but it will be in a D-/F neighborhood out there. When I flew out there a couple of times, I saw some ...and they needed work.

@James Wise   Has some great info on neighborhoods out there and his company has licensed agents and does property management and "light" rehab work to get a property up to snuff. 

A word to the wise..........Do something "sooner" rather than later in Cleveland. No tenants like to move in the winter months out there. November through March NOBODY really likes to move out there. I had a vacant  unit that I was so desperate to rent out to anyone hat i literally had my property manager heading over to show it to a woman that had TWO Pit Bulls, Who was having "a hard time finding a place" that occasionally smoked (I don't have smokers in any of my rentals) and was on disability.    SHE called me an hour before the showing and said her and her boyfriend "Just didn't feel like coming to see the place because if they saw it and liked it then they would have to be moving in the middle of winter".  

Also.....I would recommend flying out there to look around. Before you go out there, engage a couple of property managers and agents (some companies do both) in the zip codes you are interested in by phone and "screen them". Make sure that the PM's and the agents are also real estate investors so you're dealing with someone of the same mindset.

Make sure you get pre-approved with a lender as well. Your conversations with agents will go better when you are able to tell them you have been pre-approved with a lender. 

This may get me in "hot water" but I will say that the lenders that I found were NOT here on BP because they were less than impressed when I told them my initial criteria was similar to yours as far as a price range. I did however find some lenders outside of BP that were more than happy to work with me.